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m.  I  J.  I.  VON  BOLLINGER'S 
FABLES 


EKSFECTINO 


THE  POPES  m  THE  MIDDLE  AGES, 

Translated  by  Alfred  Plummer, 

Fellow  and  Tutor  of  Trinity  College,  Oxford; 

Together  with  Dr.  Dollinger's  Essay  on 

THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT 


PROPHECIES  OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA, 

Translated  for  tee  American  Edition  with  an  Introduction 
AND  Notes 

BY  HENRY  B.  SMITH,  D.  D., 

ProfesBor  in  Union  Theological  Seminary,  N.  Y. 


DODD   &   MEAD, 

No.  t62,  Broadway,  New  York. 

1872. 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress,  in  the  year  1872,  by 

DODD  &  MEAD, 

In  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Dr.  von  DolHngcr's  Fables  about  the  Popes  in  the 
Middle  Ages  ^  was  published  more  than  ten  years 
ago  ;  the  fruit,  as  the  author  says,  of  preparatory 
studies  upon  a  larger  work,  the  general  History  of  the 
Papacy.  The  growing  importance  of  all  subjects 
bearing  upon  the  development  of  the  papal  system, 
and  the  high  reputation  of  Dr.  Dollinger  as  a  theolo- 
gian and  as  the  leader  of  the  so-called  Old  Catholic 
party  in  Germany,  led  to  its  translation  last  year  in 
England  by  Mr.  Alfred  Plummer,  a  Fellow  and  Tutor 
of  Trinity  College,  Oxford,  and  a  pupil  and  personal 
friend  of  the  author.  In  the  present  edition  that 
translation  is  retained,  here  and  there,  revised  from  a 
comparison  with  the  original.  Mr.  Plummer  added 
the  Appendices  B  to  F,  and  also  wrote  a  long  and 
interesting  Introduction  to  the  English  edition,  giving 
a  general  review  of  the  main  topics  of  the  work.  This 

1  Die  Papst-Fabein  des  Mittelalters.  Ein  Bcitrag  zur  Kirchen- 
goschichto  von  Joh.  Jos.  Ign.  v.  Dollinger.  Zweite  unveriiudcrto 
A'lflago.  Miinchcn,  1363  Litorarisch-artistischo  Anstalt  dcr  J.  Q- 
Cotta'  schen  Buchhandlung. 


II  INTRODUCTION. 

has  been  left  out,  in  part  to  make  room  for  another 
valuable  essay  of  Dr.  Dollinger.  We  are,  however, 
indebted  to  Mr.  Plummer's  Introduction  for  many 
facts  about  Dr.  Bollinger's  life  and  writings.  The 
paragraphs  in  brackets  are  by  the  English  translator, 
excepting  those  signed  with  the  initials  of  the  Ameri- 
can editor. 

The  essay  of  Dr.  Dollinger,  translated  for  this 
American  edition,  is  on  The  PropJietic  Spirit  and  tlie 
Prophecies  of  the  Christian  Era.  ^  It  was  published 
last  year  in  the  new  series  of  von  Raumer's  Histor- 
isches  Taschenbuch.  It  is  an  attractive  subject,  treated 
with  great  learning  and  ability ;  and  not  the  less 
interesting  because  of  its  silent  bearing  upon  the 
questions  and  complications  of  the  hour,  especially 
the  relation  of  the  Italian  Papacy  to  European 
Christendom.  For  now,  as  well  as  throughout 
mediaeval  times,  it  may  be  said,  in  a  broad  general 
view,  that  Latins  and  Germans,  Guclph  and  Ghibel- 
line,  Ultramontanes  and  Cismontancs,  the  South  and 
the  North,  the  Papacy  and  the  Empire,  are  arrayed 
against  each  other,  and  that  the  destiny  of  Con- 
tinental Europe  hangs,  as  it  has  for  fifteen  hundred 

1  Der  Woissagun^glaube  und  das  Prophotcnthnm  in  der  christ- 
lichen  Zcit:  In  the  Ilitlorisches  Taschenbuch,  boprimdot  von  Friediich 
von  Raumcr,  horausg.  von  W.  II.  Riehl.  Fiiufte  Folga.  Ertiter 
Jabrgaug.  Leipzig:  F.  A.  Brockhaus,  1871. 


JXTRODUCTION.      ■  ni 

years,  upon  the  results  of  this  conflict.  Besides  this, 
however,  the  topic  itself,  as  here  treated,  is  one  of 
profound  int'^rest  in  its  psychological,  as  well  as  in  its 
historical  and  religious  connections.  Such  a  historic 
review  shows  that  man  must  look  before  as  well  as 
after;  he  must  remember  the  past  and  also  strive 
to  anticipate  the  future, — especially  in  the  great  joints 
and  crises  of  events.  Belief  in  Providence,  as  well  as 
faith  in  Scripture,  prompts  men  of  deep  thought  and 
feeling  to  ascend  some  mount  of  vision,  whence 
they  may  perchance  descry  the  shadows  of  coming 
events.  Nowhere  has  this  profourid  theme  been 
treated  in  so  full  and  compressed  a  manner  as  in  Dr. 
Dollinger's  admirable  summary. 

All  of  the  dissertations  of  the  present  volume  are 
important  to  a  correct  understanding  of  mediaeval 
times,  and,  indirectly,  to  a  just  appreciation  of  those 
mediceval  tendencies  and  institutions  which  still 
survive,  and  instinctively  contend  against  reformation 
and  progress.  They  are  likewise  valuable  as  indicating 
the  process  through  which  their  distinguished  author 
has  passed  in  coming  to  his  present  position.  History 
rather  than  dogma  has  brought  him  to  oppose  tiic 
decrees  of  the  Vatican  Council.  He  has  examined 
and  sifted  the  records,  and  found  that  the  very  tradi- 
tion of  the  Church  disproves  the  present  pretentions 


IV  ■      INTRODUCTION. 

of  the  Papacy.  In  his  eloquent  inaugural  address  last 
year,  as  Rector  of  the  University  of  Munich,  he 
declared  that  the  Ultramontanists,  unsuccessful  in 
their  warfare  against  science,  are  now  striving  to  falsify 
history.  In  a  recent  lecture  he  is  reputed  to  have 
said,  that  "  the  Papacy  is  based  upon  an  audacious 
falsification  of  history.  A  forgery  in  its  very  outset, 
it  has,  during  the  Lmg  years  of  its  existence,  had  a 
pernicious  influence  upon  Church  and  State  alike." 
The  historic  records  must  be  altered,  if  the  Papacy  is 
to  be  upheld.  And  this  is  one  reason  why  Roman 
Catholics  all  over  the  world  arc  now  contending  for 
the  ecclesiastical  control  of  popular  education.  They 
want  their  own  text-books  in  history  as  well  as  their 
own  catechisms. 

Dr.  John  Joseph  Ignatius  von  Dollinger  celebrated 
his  seventy-third  birth  day  on  the  28th  of  February 
last  ;  the  celebration  was  in  the  Museum  Hall  of 
Munich,  in  connection  with  the  fifth  lecture  of  his 
recent  course  on  the  Reunion  of  Christendom.  He 
was  born  at  Wurzburg  in  1799,  ordained  as  priest  in 
1822,  and  in  1826  he  became  professor  of  theology  in 
the  new  University  of  Munich.  The  same  year  he 
published  his  earliest  work,  The  Doctrine  of  tJie  llu- 
cJiarist  in  the  first  three  Centuries.  The  first  two 
volumes  of  his  Church  History  came  out  from  1833  to 


INTRODUCTION.  V 

1835  ;  from  1836  to  1843,  he  published  a  Compendmm 
of  the  History  of  the  CJnirch  to  the  Reformation.  The 
English  translation  of  his  CJnirch  History  is  "  an  un- 
skilful combination  of  these  two."  In  1838  he  brought 
O'lt  a  work  on  Mohammed's  Religion,  its  Development 
and  Influence.  Between  1848  and  185 1  appeared  his 
three  volumes  on  The  Reformation,  its  Internal  De- 
velopment  and  Effects  within  the  Sphere  of  the  Luther- 
an Confession  (Rati^bon) ;  he  had  previously  written, 
as  far  back  as  1828,  a  History  of  the  Reformation^ 
which  formed  the  third  volume  of  Hortig's  Ecclesias- 
tical  History.  All  of  these  works  show  great  research, 
and  ever-increasing  largeness  of  view.  He  confessed 
to  Mr.  Plummer  that  his  History  of  the  Reformation 
was  "  a  one-sided  book  written  with  the  definite  object 
of  disproving  the  theory  that  the  German  reformers 
revived  pure  Apostolic  Christianity  in  the  presbytery." 
The  whole  of  the  third  bulky  volume  is  in  fact  de- 
voted to  an  examination  and  refutation  of  the  doctrine 
of  justification  by  faith  alone. 

In  the  University  he  meanwhile  read  lectures  on 
the  Philosophy  of  Religion,  Canon  Law,  Symbolism, 
Patristics,  and  lor  a  time  on  Dogmatic  Theology.  Me 
also  published  several  occasional  pieces  : —  Tlic  Rili- 
gion  of  Shakespeare  ;  The  Introduction  of  Christianity 
among  the  Germans  ;  A  Cotnmentary  on  Dante  s  Para- 


VI  INTRODUCTION. 

dise,  accompanied  with  the  designs  of  Cornelius ; 
JlILvcd  Marriages  O838);  TJie  EnglisiL  Tractarians ; 
Jo  Jul  Huss;  The  Albigciiscs;  The  Duty  and  Lazv  of  the 
Church  toivard  those  who  die  in  other  Conwumions  (on 
the  occasion  of  the  death  of  the  Queen  Dowager  of 
Bavaria,  1842) ;  Error,  Doiibt  and  Truth,  1845,  being 
an  address  to  the  students  of  the  University  ;  a  speech 
on  The  Freedom  of  the  Chureh,  1849,  before  tlie 
Cathohc  Union  of  Germany  ;  JMartin  Luther,  a  Sketch, 
1852.  He  superintended  an  edition  of  his  colleague 
Mohler's  minor  writings.  For  several  years  he  was 
the  editor  of  the  Historisch-politiscJie  Blatter,  (for  which 
however  he  did  not  write  much),  an  able  periodical 
devoted  to  the  interests  of  the  Catholic  reactionary 
party  in  Southern  Germany, 

Dr.  Dollinger  has  also  taken  a  prominent  part  in 
the  political  movements  of  his  times.  He  represented 
the  University  in  the  Bavariaii  Chamber  from  1845 
to  1847  ;  several  of  his  speeches  have  been  published.  ^ 
In  1847  he  was  deprived  of  his  professorship,  and 
consequently  of  his  seat  in  the  Chamber,  where  the 
ministers  who  had  been  raised  to  power  by  Lola 
Montez  dreaded  his  eloquence  and  character.  Having 

1  Drei  Rfdcn,  gcbalk'n  anf  di'in  bnycrischen  Landtapo,  1813. 
1.  Die  Kin.hli(  Inn  Aiilr.igi!  dis  KtirhiatheB.  2.  Die  i'lotcbUia- 
tisclitn  Btschwordcii.     3.  Die  Judcutiago. 


INTRODUCTION.  VII 

been  elected  a  deputy  to  the  National  Parliament  in 
1 848,  he  spoke  and  wrote  with  great  effect  in  favor  of 
religious  liberty ;  and  the  definition  of  the  relation 
between  Church  and  State,  which  was  passed  at  Franc- 
fort,  and  afterwards  nominally  adopted  both  at 
Vienna  and  BerUn,  is  said  to  have  been  his  work.  ^  In 
1849  he  was  restored  to  his  professorship  and  also  to 
his  seat  in  the  Chamber,  which  last  he  resigned  two 
years  later,  to  devote  himself  entirely  to  his  literary 
labors. 

He  took  part  in  the  controversy  excited  by  the 
discovery  of  the  Philosophinnena,  185 1  (at  first 
ascribed  to  Origen,  but  probably  the  work  of  Hippo- 
lytus)  by  the  publication  in  1853  of  his  Hippolytus 
and  Callistus ;  or,  the  Roman  Church  in  the  first  half 
of  the  Third  Century y  reviewing  the  writings  of  Bunsen, 
Baur,  Wordsworth  and  Gieseler,  and  showing  himself 
their  equal  in  learning  and  skill  and  power  of  historic 
combination.  His  Paganism  and  Judaism,  translated 
into  English  by  the  Rev.  N,  Darnell  under  the  title 
of  The  Gentile  and  the  Jeiv,  is  a  very  learned  and  able 
introduction  to  the  general  history  of  the  Christian 
Church.  In  i860  appeared  Tlie  First  Ag^  of  Chris- 
tianity and  tlie  Church,  translated  by  Rev.  H.  N. 
Oxenham  ;  and  the  next  year  The  Church  and  the 

1  Mr.  Plummet's  Introduction,  pp.  xi.,  xii. 


VIII  INTRODUCTION. 

Churches,  translated  by  Mr.  W.  B.  Maccabe — which 
more  than  any  of  his  previous  volumes  made  his  name 
familiar  in  England  and  this  country.  His  inaugural 
address,  1867,  when  first  chosen  Rector  of  the  Uni- 
versity, was  on  The  Universities  as  they  Were  and  Are; 
it  was  published  in  an  enlarged  form  (p.  58).  It 
gives  an  excellent  account  of  the  rise,  growth  and 
present  state  of  the  university  system  in  Europe ; 
though  it  hardly  does  full  justice  to  the  provisions  for 
higher  education  in  Great  Britain  and  this  country. 

His  recent  course  is  well  known.  The  letters  on 
Rome  and  the  Council,  by  Janus,  were  doubtless  in- 
spired by  him,  though  said  to  be  written  by  Professor 
Huber  ;  the  famous  letters  of  Quirinus,  chiefly  from 
Rome,  are  of  a  kindred  character.  Dollinger's  De- 
clarations about  the  decree  of  Infallibility,  his  reply 
to  the  sentence  of  excommunication  by  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Munich,  his  speech  at  the  Old  Catholic 
Congress  in  Munich,  his  Inaugural  Address  when 
recently  called  for  the  second  time  to  be  Rccior  of 
the  University,  his  recent  lectures  at  Munich  ow  the 
Reunion  of  Christendom,  especially  the  one  on  Luther, 
and  that  on  the  past  attempts  to  frame  schemes  for 
uniting  the  Roman  Catholic  and  the  Protestant 
Churches — these  publications  have  followed  in  rapid 
succession,  and  their  fame  has  gone  abroad  into  all 


INTRODUCTION.  IX 

lands.  They  would  be  well  worth  gatherhig  into 
another  volume.  He  is  said,  by  Mr.  Plummer,  to 
intend  continuing  his  treatise  on  Prophecies,  etc.,  by 
an  essay  on  "  Dante  as  a  Prophet,"  in  both  senses  of 
the  word,  L  e.,  as  a  great  and  inspired  teacher,  and 
as  a  seer,  or  foreteller  of  future  events  ;  aspects  of  the 
great  mediaeval  poet  which  have  hitherto  been  com- 
paratively lost  sight  of.  He  is  also  engaged  on  a  work 
treating  of  the  "Constitution  and  Internal  Government 
of  the  Church." 

Many  of  the  Old  Catholics  are  hardly  satisfied 
with  Dr.  Dollinger's  present  position,  thinking  it  to  be 
indefinite  and  untenable.  But,  in  all  great  changes, 
untenable  positions  must  be  taken  up  for  a  time ; 
some  persons,  some  Churches,  may  remain  in  them  for 
a  Ion*  time ;  a  vital  and  growing  movement  will  soon 
pass  beyond  them.  And  we  ought  rather  to  rejoice 
that  "the  Nestor  of  the  German  Catholic  theology" 
(as  the  able  Canonist  von  Schulte,  of  Prague,  calls  Dr. 
Dollingcr)  has  advanced  so  far,  than  blame  him  for  not 
yet  being  a  thorough  Protestant.  In  his  successive 
recent  publications  his  tone  is  becoming  firmer  an  1 
clearer.  In  his  last  course  of  lectures  he  speaks  of 
Luther  as  he  has  never  done  before :  "  The  mind  and 
heart  of  the  Germans  were  in  Luther's  hands  as  the 
lyre  in  the  hands  of  the  musician.     Did  he  not  give 


X  INTRODUCTION. 

to  his  nation  more  than  any  other  man  in  Christian 
times  ever  gave  to  a  nation, — language,  books  for  all, 
the  Bible,  church  hymns  ? Others  were  stam- 
mering, he  spoke ;  he  alone  it  is  who  has  impressed 
the  ineffaceable  stamp  of  his  genius,  not  only  upon 
the  German  language,  but  also  upon  the  German  mind. 
And  even  those  Germans  who  detest  him  from  the 
depths  of  their  souls  as  the  mighty  heretic  and 
seducer  of  the  nation,  are  forced  to  speak  in  his  words 
and  think  with  his  thoughts."  In  his  fifth  lecture  he 
discourses  about  the  Papacy  thus:  "The  opinion 
[that  the  Pope  is  Antichrist]  has  not  lx;en  formed 
without  the  guilt  of  Rome.  When  the  popes  again 
and  again  encouraged  religious  wars,  when  they 
recommended  and  demanded  the  bloody  extirpation 
of  all  who  believed  otherwise  than  them  >elves,  when 
even  in  the  seventeenth  century  men  were  executed 
at  Rome  itself  on  account  of  their  Protestantism — the 
people  could  hardly  fail  to  believe  that  the  Papacy 
must  be  the  Woman,  of  whom  John  siiys  that  she 
was  drunken  with  the  blood  of  saints,  and  the  Man  of 
Sin,  of  whom  Paul  prophesied  as  coming  with  lying 
wonders,  and  exalting  himself  above  all  that  is  called 
God,  in  that  he  as  God  sitteth  in  the  temple  of  God, 
showing  himself  that  he  is  God."  (2  Thcss.  ii.,  3,  4.' 
He  may  not  adopt  this  "popular"  view,  bat  he  think 
it  natural  enough. 


INTRO  D  UCTION.  xi 

Dr.  Dollinger  bides  his  time.  He  moves  cautiously 
yet  firmly.  And  who  can  tell  what  a  few  months  may 
bring  forth  ?  It  may  be  that  in  Southern  Germany, 
a  National  German  Catholic  Church  will  yet  be  found 
necessary  by  the  government,  to  prevent  the  newly 
shaped  Vatican  decree  of  Infallibility  from  overriding 
the  old  and  ever- reserved  rights  and  relative 
independence  of  the  nations.  For  that  decree  claims 
for  the  Papacy,  not  only  omniscience  in  all  that  man 
can  know  about  faith  and  morals,  but  also  the  right  to 
make  its  decisions  directly  binding  on  every  Roman 
Catholic  conscience,  without  appeal,  and  against  any 
and  every  other  earthly  power. 

In  a  recent  conversation  with  an  American  citizen 
of  high  standing,  Dr.  Dollinger  is  reported  to  have 
said  to  him :  "  Do  you  in  the  United  States  compre- 
hend what  that  doctrine  (Papal  Infallibility)  involves  .<* 
It  imposes  upon  those  who  accept  it  the  solemn 
obligation  to  violate  civil  law,  to  set  themselves  up  in 
opposition  to  the  ordinances  of  your  Government 
whenever  the  Pope  shall  pronounce  his  infallible 
judgment  against  any  one  of  those  ordinances  upon 
moral  or  religious  grounds.  In  a  word,  it  is  the 
assumption  of  power  on  the  part  of  the  Pope  to 
proclaim  a  higher  law,  which,  according  to  the  dogma, 
'lis    children    must    obey,    though    such    obedience 


XII  INTRODUCTION. 

involves  treason  to  the  State,  and  the  overthrow  of 
your  Government." 

Sooner  than  many  people  suspect,  we  may  begin  to 
feel  the  effects  of  this  new  dogma  in  a  new  policy  on 
the  part  of  Roman  Catholics.  This  must  be  so  if  the 
Decree  is  faithfully  applied.  Revision  of  many  of  our 
laws  as  to  education,  ecclesiastical  property,  and  the 
amenability  of  the  priesthood  to  civil  tribunals,  may 
soon  be  demanded.  This  portends  serious  disturb- 
ances in  our  political  and  religious  life.  We  may  soon 
have  to  face  the  question,  whether  the  canon  law  or 
the  civil  law  is  to  be  the  law  of  the  land. — H.  B.  S. 


AUTHOR'S    PREFACE. 

The  present  publication  is  the  fruit  of  a  course  of 
reading  and  study  whicli  I  undertook  with  a  view  to 
a  more  considerable  work,  intended  to  embrace  the 
history  of  the  Papacy.  It  seemed  to  me,  however, 
that  the  results  of  my  researches,  which  are  here 
given  to  the  public,  formed  to  some  extent  as  a  con- 
nected whole,  because  all  these  fables  and  inventions 
— however  different  may  have  been  the  occasions 
which  gave  them  birth,  and  however  intentional  or 
unintentional  may  have  been  their  production — have, 
nevertheless,  had  at  times  a  marked  influence  on  the 
whole  aspect  of  the  Middle  Ages,  on  the  history  and 
poetry  of  the  time,  on  its  theology,  and  its  juris- 
prudence. For  this  reason  I  may,  perhaps,  venture 
to  hope  that  not  only  theologians  and  ecclesiastical 
historians,  but  lovers  and  students  of  mediaeval 
history  and  mediaeval  literature  in  general,  will  find 
this  book  not  altogether  devoid  of  interest. 

J.   V.   DoLLINGER. 

Munich,  May  24th,  1863. 

13 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 


PART  I. 
Mediaeval  Fables  about  the  Popes. 


PA  OK. 

POPE  JOAN. 

Not  yet  sufficiently  proved  to  be  a  myth 4 

Not  an  inexplicable  riddle 6 

Eight  explanations  stated 7 

All  eight  assume  that  the  story  is  older  than  the   13th 

century 9 

The  Papess  not  mentioned  by  Marianus  Scotus 10 

nor  by  Sigebcrt  of  Gimblours 11 

nor  by  Otto  of  Freysingen 12 

Stephen   de   Bourbon  the   first  chronicler  who  mentions 

her U 

Martinus  Tolonus  the  chief  means  of  spreading  the  story. .  IG 

Even  in  his  case  the  story  is  an  interpolation 18 

Various  ways  of  interpolating 20 

In  "  Anastasius  "  also  the  story  is  a  later  addition 24 

Reasons   for  inserting  the  Papess    between  Leo  IV.  and 

Benedict  III 25 

Writers  who  copy  Marti inis  Polonus 28 

Writers  of  the  I4th  century  who  mention  her 29 

The  Dominicans  and  Minorifx-s  spread  the  story 33 

Used  as  an  argument  at  the  council  of  Constance 34 

The  Dominicans  might  eiisily  have  exi>osed  the  story 36 

Not  known  to  the  Grt<ks  till  1450-1500 38 

Avcntin  and  Onulrio  Panvinio  the  lirst  to  deny  it 40 

Analysis  or  th>  Stort 

Discrepancies  about  the  name  of  the  Papess 40 

the  dati;  of  hi-r  Pontilicate 41 

lier  previous  abode 4  2 

the  m'xb;  of  the  catastrophe 43 

Boccaeio's  version  probably  the  popular  one 44 

15 


XVI  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

Origin  of  the  Story. 

Four  elements  of  production. — 1 .  A  statue 47 

2.  An  inscription 49 

3.  A  seat  of  unusual  shape  52 

4.  A  custom 53 

Examples  of  bimilar  Stories. 

The  two  -wives  of  the  Count  of  Gleichen 59 

The  Piistrich  at  Sondershausen 61 

Archbishop  Hatto  and  the  mice G2 

i'igure  on  the  Kiesenthor  of  Vienna  Cathedral 64 

The  origin  of  the  house  of  Colonna 65 

Abode  of  tub  Papess. 

Why  represented  as  coming  from  England CG 

Mayence 67 

Athens 72 

II.  POPE  CYRIACUS. 

This  fiction  had  a  definite  object 75 

Visions  of  the  nun  Elizabeth  of  Schunau 75 

St.  Ursula  and  her  maidens 76 

Abdication  of  Cyriacus 77 

Martinus  Polonus  the  chief  means  of  spreading  the  story. .  77 

Tlic  story  brougiit  to  bear  on  the  abdication  of  Ccelestine  V.  79 

III.  MARCELLINUS. 

The  story  of  his  abdication  very  ancient 81 

Tlie  whole  stoiy  a  tissue  of  absurdities 83 

Its,  object,  to  prove  that  pojies  are  above  all  tribunals 84 

Probable  date  of  its  fabrication 85 

Use  made  of  it  by  Kicolas  I.,  Gerson,  and  Gerbert 87 

IV.  CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER. 

Multitude  of  writers  who  mention  the  baptism  of  Constan- 

tine  by  Sylvester  at  llonv: 88 

Tlie  true  account  seemed  incredible  in  the  Middle  Ages...  83 

Thi'  .story  certainly  originated  in  Home 91 

Probable  date  of  its  fabrication 92 

Kot  gemiraiiy  acceptcil  at  first 93 

Inlliunee  of  the  l.xbrr  I'ontijiculis 95 

Alleiniit  of  Eklichard  to  reconcile  the  two  accounts 90 

Theory  of  Uonizo  of  Sutri 97 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  xvii 

Italian  chroniclers  who  follow  him 99 

The  story  a|)|KaIed  to  bv  Hadrian  1.,  Nicolas  I.,  and  Leo 

IX '. 99 

Johannes  Malalas  tht;  first  Greek  w  ho  accepts  it 100 

The  true  account  seemed  incredible  to  the  Gnx-ks  also...,  100 

.(Eneas  Sylviii.«  and  Nicolas  of  Cusa  knew  th<^  truth 102 

The  truth  spreads  slowly 102 

Its  final  triumph  due  to  French  theologians 103 

The  story  a  favourite  subject  for  i)oenis 103 

V.  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

Account  of  the  Donation   in  the   Liber   Pontificalia  sus- 
picious   104 

Evidence  of  I  tadrian  1 105 

No  traces  ot  the  Donation  till  about  750 105 

Theory  that  it  was  a  G;eek  fabrication  disproved  by  the 

language  of  the  dotninient 107 

The  Greek  text  an  evident  translation   .~ 1  ;0 

Why  the  Greeks  so  readily  believ«;d  in  the  Donation  .    ....  113 

Ac-<i-ptcd  in  tlie  West  even  before  known  tc  the  (ueeks   ..  114 

Tiie  work  of  a  Roman  ecclesiastic 11.") 

Trubalile  date  of  the  forgery 11  (5 

lioman  liorror  of  the  Lombards 1 1  tj 

Not  ungrounded 118 

Schenu-  of  Gregory  II.  to  make  Home  independrnt 12  ) 

The  Donation  gave  an  historic  ba.sis  to  this  scheini' 121 

Not  fabricated  l>y  tlie  pscudo- Isidore 122 

Contrnts  of  the  d(M  tiuunt 123 

The  nioHuntotis  ninth  clause 125 

Cliangf  oi    'or"  into  "and" 126 

The  senate.  i)atri(-iate,  and  consulate  in  the  8th  century...  127 

Papal  oflicialt  an  imitation  of  imperial  oflieials 127 

Stated  object  of  the  Donation 131 

Certainly  known  in  liome  before  850 \',2 

iEneas  of  I'aris  treat.-*  it  as  authentic 133 

llincniar  and  Ado  are  more  reserved 133 

L(v)  IX    .shows  full  belief  in  it 134 

Ilrma-Uable  silence  of  Gregory  VII i:!4 

Urban  ll.  e|aim.<  Corsii  a  on  the  strength  of  it    . 135 

Hadrian   IV    gives  Ireland   to  Henry  II    on  the  strength 

<.f  i» '. 1  36 

N  'ai'olitar.  clergy  tabricate  a  Donation 139 

The  Donation  disputed  iii  Rome  "vhen  found  inconvenient 

by  monks 140 

by  foik'Wers  <if  Arnold  of  Brescia..  l4l 

JJut,  though  disputed,  still  largely  used 143 


XVIII  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

Claims  of  the  popes  to  the  imperial  insifjnia  and  homage . .  1  IS 

Dissatisfaction  in  Germany  at  such  claims 1 4  ? 

Ilistoriaus,  more   cautious  than  the  clergy,  limiL  w'thoui 

denying  the  Donation 14S 

From  the  1 2th  to  14th  century  its  authority  increases 1 ')  1 

Innocent  I  V.'s  statement  of  papal  supremacy 153 

Lawyers  allowed   the    Donation   onlj'   the    rij^iit  of   ,  .>  - 

scription 156 

Uncertainty  as  to  its  extent 1  ."i3 

Extension  given  to  it  by  German  law-  >ot^ks 1G4 

Two  opposite  views  respecting  it : — 

1.  That  it  and  similar  endowments  were  admirable 166 

2.  That  the  wealth  of  the  Church  was  a  source  of  infinite 

evil 163 

Hence  the  story  of  the  angel's  lament 171 

Medieval  sects  adopted  the  second  view 1 T3 

The  fiction  exposecl  bj'  ^nf'as  Sylvius 177 

Also  by  Bishop  Pecock,  Cardinal  Cusa,  and  Lorenzo  Valla 

its  last  defenders . . , .  ^ 173 

VL  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

The  true  account 183 

Felix  an  antipope 183 

Liberius  an  apostate 185 

He  is  fairly  called  heretical 1  f^'J 

He  re-estnblishfs  his  orthodoxy 1  Si) 

Felix  more  culpable,  and  without  excuse 190 

The  fable Ud 

Object  of  it  to  wliitcwasli  tbe  pstrty  of  Felix 1  '.•'2 

Kot  older  than  the  Gth  century 1  '.'2 

Version  of  the  Liber  J'oiitiJicuLis  and  of  the  AcU  of  Felix. .  I'Xi 

Version  of  the  Acts  of  Fusebius 1 9G 

Name  of  Felix  inserted  into  martynd^gies,  calendars.  &c..  \\>1 

He  is  confotnided  with  the  African  niHrlyr  Felix I  Dl) 

The  fable  orif^inated  in  the  Liber  /'onliU  ulis 2o2 

Difficulties  when  the  truth   became    known    in    the   lUtii 

century 205 

A  forgc'd  inscription -'n') 

I'aoli's  monstrous  hypothesis 2o7 

The  fable  finally  abandoned 20i) 

VII.  ANASTASIUS  II. 

Anastasius  IT 210 

Dante  selects  liim  us  an  in.staiice  of  an  heretical  jiope J  10 

Was  he  a  heretic  ' 212 

Dante's  error  the  coniniuii  bidi  .f  of  the  time 2 1  iJ 

This  erroneous  belief  create!  niainly  byGratiaii 211) 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  Xix 

Vril.  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

Opposite  fiite  of  Ffonorius  and  Anastasius 223 

llonotholitism  an  attempted  compromise  between  mono- 

pliysitisra  and  ortiiodoxy 223 

Honorins  confessedly  a  monothelite 228 

Anathematized  by  tlie  Vith  general  council 229 

For  actual  heresy,  not  for  mere  negligence 230 

The  papal  legates  vote  for  the  anathema 233 

Pojjc  Agatho's  vain  attempt  to  avert  the  anathema 23-1 

Leo  II.  confirms  the  anathema 235 

The  lAber  Uiuriiut  requires    every  pope    to   confirm   the 

anathema 230 

Marked  silence  of  the  Liber  Pont'ficalis 237 

The  anathema  treated  in  the  East  as  a  matter  of  course . . .   240 

Hincmar  of  Kheinis  assents  to  it 240 

Silence  of  the  Liber  Pontificalis  followed  by  historians. ...    211 

The  anathema  on  a  pope  is  thus  forgotten 241 

Leo  IX.  shows  utter  ignorance  of  it 243 

A  Greek  first  reminds  the  West  of  the  fact 246 

Torquemada  sacrifices  the  council  to  save  Honorius 247 

The  question  not  seriously  debated  till  the  16th  century. .  248 

Yaoious  Htpothbsis. 

1.  That  the  Acts  of  the  Council  have  been  interpolated. . . .  248 

2.  That  they  are  really  the  Acts  of  another  synod 249 

3.  That  the  letters  of  Honorius  are  forgeries 249 

4.  That  Honorius  was  condemned  for  negligence  only. ., .  '1:>0 

5.  That  the  letters  of  Sergius  are  forgeries :^.03 

6.  That  (he  letters  of  Leo  II.  are  also  forgeries 2r)-t 

7.  That  Honorius  was  condemned  by  the  (Jrc'eks  only....  254 

8.  That  Honorius   wrote,   not  as   pope,  but  as  a  private 
teacher 255 

The   Monothelitism  of  Honorius  would  never   have  been 
questioned,  had  he  not  been  pope 25G 

IX.  POrE  GREGORY  II.  AND  THE  EMPEROR  LEO  IIL 

Gregory  II.  represented  as  heading  a  revolt  against  Leo 

111 257 

Martinu?  Polonus  once  more  the  propagator  of  error 257 

Theophanes  the  source  of  the  statement 253 

Gregory  headed  no  revolt,  but  helped  to  qnasli  one 2t;0 

Vi,  w  of  Gregorovius  inconsistent  with  f;icts  and  itself.,..  2';2 

Difficult  position  of  Gregory  II 264 


XX  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

X.  SYLVESTER  II. 

Gradual  defamation  of  his  memory 2G7 

1.  That  he  was  too  fond  of  profane  arts  and  sciences 2G7 

2.  Tliat  his  election  at  Ravenna  was  dxic  to  sinister  arts..  208 

3.  That  he  was  addicted  to  magic  and  black  art 2GS 

4.  That  he  sold  himself  to  the  devil 269 

The  fable  of  Eoman  origin 27D 

Its  object 270 

Tlie  Dominicans  spread  the  fable 272 

The  truth  recognised  in  the  14th  century 272 


PART  11. 

The  Prophetic  Spirit  and  the  Prophecies  of 
THE  Christian  Era. 

I.  introduction. 

Contrast  between  the  prophetic  spirit  in  Heathendom  and 

in  Christendom 273 

Four  ordirs  of  prophecit;s 274 

Kcclesiastical  prophcnirs 275 

'J'hree-fold  origin  of  predictions 275 

Spontaneous  propliecies 2  7<) 

I'r.Mlietidns  with  a  purpose 277 

Dynastic  proj)hecies 278 

Predicted  succession  of  tlie  popes 281 

The  predii  tl'>ns  of  Joachim 282 

'J'lie  predictions  of  Malacliias 283 

Hess'  prophecy  of  the  Reformation 284 

Cazotte  and  Beauregard 284 

II.  PROPHECIES    OF    THE    EARLIER    TIMES  :     ANTI- 
CllillST;  THE  END  OF  THE  WORLD. 

Thr  Sibylline  bodka ' 2RG 

End  of  the  Roman  Empire 28  7 

Tlie  AJitichrist 283 

The  literature  about  the  Antichrist 2U0 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS,  xxi 

IIT.  NATIONAL  PROPHECIES. 

From  a  sense  of  national  ffuilt 293 

Among  Hiilijugated  nations 294 

Merlin  and  his  i)roj)luxii'8 21*5 

Tlio  ancient  Britons,  Cyniri 295 

Jlcrlin  in  Southern  Europe 21tG 

(ialfri.d's  HiKtoiy  of  the  Britons 297 

1  he  German  Dragon  and  the  lied  Dragon 299 

King  Arthur 300 

JI  rlin's  inliuenee  on  the  Welsh 301 

1  lie  Irish  predictions 302 

The  Scotch  predictions 303 

Tlie  Portuguese  predictions 304 

F'  bastian  and  the  Sebastianists 305 

Tiie  prophecies  of  Vieira 306 

I'vzantine  prophecies 308 

Constantinople 311 

George  of  Trapezium 312 

IV.  THE  PROPHECY  ABOUT  ROME. 

"  The  Ekrnal  City" 314 

Rome  and  the  end  of  the  woild 316 

rn-diction  of  St.  Benedict 317 

Ri<  hard  Rolle  de  llampole 318 

Ciiarles  V ;   319 

r.ishop  Berthold's  Proi)hecy 319 

Ii.irth<.lomro  Brandano  and  clement  VII 320 

The  Chun  h  to  be  «ived  by  fleeing  from  Rome 323 

V.  THE  CHARACTERISTICS  OF  THE  PROPHETS. 

No  special  sanctity  required 324 

A  double  consciousni  fis 325 

Thomas  A(iuinas  on  the  Proj)het.s 325 

Fidso  prophecy  of  Peter  Damiani 327 

False"i)rophecy  of  St.  Bernanl 323 

False  prophecy  of  Vincents  Ferrer 329 

Prophef-y  of  Catharine  of  Siena 330 

St.  Brigitta  nearer  right 331 

Two  currents  of  proijhecy 331 

Savonarola  an  unwilling  prophet 332 

Camiianella,  his  prophecies  and  per«ecntions 333 

Dionysius  Kyckel  "  the  ccst;itic  tcachei^' 335 

N icolas  of  Cu.-^a 335 

Robert  of  U.sez 337 

Uolzhauser's  vitiiuas 337 


XXII  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

VI.  THE  COSMOPOLITICAL  PEOPHECIES. 

Four  periods  of  the  s.iinc 339 

From  the  ninth  to  the  eleventh  century 310 

The  Holy  Eoman  Empire 340 

Eevelations  of  Methodius 341 

The  Abbot  Adso  on  the  last  conflict 342 

The  Mongol  Irruption 344 

Gog  and  Magog 344 

Brandt's  edition  of  Methodius 346 

The  prophetess  Hildegarde 348 

Guelphs  and  Ghibellines  in  Ita,ly 351 

Separation  of  Empire  and  Papacy 353 

Predicted  destiny  of  the  empire 354 

Jordan  of  Osnabriick 355 

The  Belgian  chronicler,  Dyuter 357 

Roger  Bacon 359 

Influence  of  Astrology 359 

The  Flagellants,  in  1 2G0 3G0 

The  Papa  Angelico  in  Bacon 361 

1'he  Emperor  Frederick  il 362 

The  Catharists 363 

Dolcino  in  Italy  ;  and  the  war  he  occasioned 364 

VII.  THE  JOACHIMPrES. 

Joachim's  prophetic  gifts 3G4 

His  great  repute  and  sanctity 366 

Prophecies  imdcr  his  name 3(59 

The  unfulfilled  prophecies 369 

b>alimbene's  position 370 

John  of  Parma  and  Bonaventura 373 

General  view  of  Joachim's  system 374 

The  three  great  periods 374 

The  last  period 376 

The  Empire  misunderstood  by  the  Guelphs. 378 

Difference  between  the  true  and  false  Joachim 379 

French  and  not  1  talians  first  attack  Joachim 380 

William  of  St  Amour 380 

(iherardino's  Eternal  Gospel 382 

His  "  Introductorius  "  condemned 383 

Exact  dates  given  up 384 

Seven  periods 384 

D'Olive  on  the  Apocalyi)se 385 

Ubertino's  work  (in  note)   385 

Antichrist  to  be  on  tlie  papal  chair 386 

Boniface  VIII.  "  tlie  new  Lucifer  " 386 

Summary  about  the  "  Spirituals  " 388 


TABLE  OF  CONTENTS.  xxiil 

The  prophecy  of  Cj'ril  from  Constantinople 389 

Arnold  of  Villanova 390 

rropnccics  about  the  religious  Orders 391 

VIII.  THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT  FROM  THE  FOUR- 
TEENTH  CENTURY  TO  THE  BEGINNING  OP 
THE  REFtRlIATION. 

The  Silver  Tables  of  Cyril 393 

Cola  di  Ri(.  nzo 393 

The  "  Papa  Angelicus" 3j4 

Pttrarch  s  Sonnet  on  Rome 395 

Jean  'l<   la  Kothelaiilarde 396 

Catliarine  of  Siena  and  Biijiitta 398 

Rome  canonizes  these  prophets 399 

lirigitta's  Prediction  applied  to  Pius  IX 400 

The  lilaci    Death 401 

The  Crusades  and  Palestine 402 

The  Angelic  J'upe  again 403 

The  fate  of  the  MoiiR  Theodore 404 

Savonarola  as  "  Papa  Angeiicus ' 405 

The  "  Papa  Angeiicus  '  quadriplcd 406 

Joachimites  and  Anti-Juachiniites 407 

H(  nry    >f  Lnngeiistoin 407 

The  Predictions  of  'I'elcsiihoiua 409 

He  rc\  i\  es  the  preiliction  about  Frederick  III 410 

But  applies  it  to  the  French  King 410 

Gainalv  on's  counti  r  German  prophecy 411 

Theological     refutation    of    Telesphorus    by    Henry     of 

Langenstein 412 

Warning    more  general  as  the  Reformation  drew  near 413 

Bi.-hop  Grosseteste  of  Lincoln 414 

Macchiavclli  and  Pico  of  N  irandula 414 

The  projihet  ies  of  Savonarola 415 

His  sagacity  like  that  of  Cicero  and  Uu  Vair 416 

His  j>()litical  prophecies  true  and  religious  false 417 

Grrinan  pofnilar  prophecies 419 

John  Lichtenbergerand  the  prophecies  ascribed  to  liim. ..  419 

Ayiiiiger  and  Griinpeckh 420 

John  Hagen's  warnings 421 

Hinry  of  Langenstein 422 

German  prophecits  of  a  German  pojie 423 

Bishop  Berthold's  "  Burden  of  the  Chun  h  " 424 

The  Swiss  poet  Gengenliach  on  the  Emperor  Maximilian.  4  25 

Close  of  the  fifteenth  century 425 


XXIV  TABLE  OF  CONTENTS. 

APPENDICES. 

A.  Tlic  I'npess  in  the Tecfcrnsoc  MS '. .  4-7 

V>.  Fuither  i);iitkiil;ir.s  about  I'ope  Joan 4:'.") 

C.  lllu.-tnituin  of  the  growth  of  Myths 4:!8 

D.  Pope  llachian's  I  etti  r  to  Henry  of  England 4-14: 

E.  Ex  Cathedra  Definitions 44  7 

E.   Defenders  of  llonoriiis,  ote 4r.G 

G.  TJie  Proplu'eies  of  Malaehias 411^2 


TART   I. 
MEDI/EVAL  FABLES  ABOUT  THE  POPES. 


I.  POPE  JOAN. 

The  subject  of  Pope  Joan  has  not  yet  lost  the  interest 
which  belongs  to  it  as  a  fact  in  the  province  of  his- 
torical criticism.  The  literature  respecting  her  reaches 
down  to  the  very  latest  times.  As  recently  as  1843 
and  1845  two  works  on  this  question  appeared 
from  the  pens  of  two  Dutch  scholars  ;  the  one  by 
Professor  Kist,^  to  prove  the  existence  of  Pope  Joan, 
the  other,  a  very  voluminous  one,  by  Professor 
Wensing,  of  Warmond,  to  disprove  Kist's  position. 
In  Italy  Bianchi-Giovini  wrote  a  book  on  the 
subject  in  the  same  year,  1845,  without  being  aware 
of  the  works  of  the  two  Dutch  writers.  In  Germany 
no  one — at  any  rate  of  those  who  know  anything  of 

1  [.'l  W-ma"  in  (he  Chair  of  S.  Pelrr.  Anoth'T  edition  of  this  has 
lately  appeared  ;  Giitorsloh,  18G6.  rrofes.sor  Kist  thiuks  that  Pope 
Joan  was  possibly  the  widow  of  Leo  IV.] 

[Kist's  Essay  was  first  pnhlishcd  in  the  N'fderlandsrh  Archiff  voor 
Ktrkchjke  iieschtedenix^  iii,  27.  Sei>  Gi<  selcr's  Church  liisturi/, 
2\ew  York  edition,  vol.  ii,  pp.  30-1, — a  lun^'  uote,  buniuiing  up  ail 
the  data  in  the  case.     H.  li.  S.J 


4  POPE   JOAN. 

history — will  easily  be  induced  to  entertain  a  serioirs 
belief  in  the  existence  of  the  female  pope.  To  do  so, 
one  must  do  violence  to  every  principle  of  historical 
criticism.  But  with  the  banishment  of  the  subject  to 
the  realm  of  fable  all  has  not  yet  been  completely 
accomplished.  The  riddle — how  this  strange  myth 
originated — remains  still  to  be  solved. 

Nothing  but  the  insufficiency  and  ill-success  of  all 
previous  attempts  at  an  explanation  can  account  for 
it  that  a  man  like  Luden,  in  his  History  of  the  German 
People}  does  all  he  can  to  make  the  reality  of  the 
well-known  myth  at  any  rate  probable.  "  It  is  in- 
"  conceivable,"  says  he,  "  how  it  could  ever  enter  into 
"  any  man's  head  to  invent  such  a  foolish,  insane 
*'  falsehood.  He  must  either  have  invented  his  lie 
"  out  of  sheer  wantonness  in  order  to  scoff  at  the 
"  papacy,  or  he  must  have  intended  to  gain  some 
"  other  object  by  means  of  it.  But  of  all  the  dozens 
"  of  writers  who  mention  Pope  Joan  and  her  mishap, 
*'  there  is  not  a  single  one  who  can  be  called  an 
"  enemy  of  the  papacy.  They  are  clcnry,  monks, 
"  guileless  people,  who  notice  this  phenomenon  in  the 
"  same  dry  way  in  which  they  mention  other  things, 
"  that  seem  to  them  to  be  strange,  wonderful, 
"  laudable,  abominable,  or  in   any  way  worth   men- 

1   GeichichU  dea  deulichen  Volkes,  vi.,  513-517. 


POPE  JOAN.  5 

"  tioning."  "And  it  cannot  be  imagined,"  says  Luden 
further  on,  "  what  object  could  seem  to  any  one  to 
"  be  attainable  by  means  of  such  a  falsehood.  More- 
"  over,  it  is  inconceivable  how  people  in  general 
"  could  have  believed  in  the  story,  and  that  without 
"  the  slightest  doubt,  for  nearly  500  years  from  the 
"  eleventh  cjntury  onwards,  if  it  had  not  been  true." 
It  is  here  to  be  noted  that  Luden  make  the  myth  of 
Pope  Joan  a  matter  of  general  belief  from  the  eleventh 
century  onwards.  It  would  be  very  much  nearer  the 
truth  to  say  that  it  did  not  find  general  belief  till 
the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  author, 
however,  of  the  article  on  Pope  Joan  in  the  Nouvclle 
Biographie  Gi'm^rale,  published  at  Paris  by  Dr.  Hofer, 
as  lately  as  1858,  goes  much  further.^  "This  belief 
prevailed  in  the  christian  world  from  the  ninth  century 
to  the  Renaissance."  And  to  crown  it  all,  Hase  thinks 
it,  at  any  rate,  credible  that  the  Church,  not  content 
with  creating  facts,  annihilated  them,  also,  whenever 
the  knowledge  of  them  seemed  critical  for  the  already 
tottering  papacy.^  According  to  Ilasc  and  Kist, 
then,  wc  must  state  the  matter  thus :  that  soon  after 
the  year  855  an  edict  issued  from  Rome  to  this  effect : 
*'  Let  no  one  presume  to  say  a  word  about  the  fact  of 
*'  a  female  pope,"  for  at  that  time  Rome  did  not  feci 

1  Vol.  xxvi.,  p.  569.         2  KirchengeschichU,  7.  Aufl.  s.  213. 


6  POPE  JOAN. 

her  position  to  be  as  yet  very  secure.  About  tlie 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  however,  a  counter 
order  issued  from  the  same  place :  "  Henceforth  it 
"  is  lawful  to  discuss  history  ;  we  now  consider  our 
"  position  safe,  and  can  venture  to  let  the  narrati\e 
"  appear  in  historical  works." 

The  judgment  of  Kurtz  is,  at  any  rate,  more  sober 
and  free  from  prejudice.^  "  The  evidence  before  us," 
he  says,  "  forbids  us  to  assign  to  the  myth  any  histo- 
"  rical  value  whatever.  We  must,  however,  (quite 
"  apart  from  the  falsification  of  the  acts,  which,  in 
"some  cases,  is  manifest,  in  others  is  a  matter  of 
"  suspicion,)  characterize  the  myth  as  a  riddle,  which 
"  criticism  has  as  yet  not  solved,  and  probably  never 
"  zvilir 

That  the  riddle  has  not  yet  been  solved,  tiiat  ail 
attempts  at  explanation  which  have  been  made  up  to 
the  present  time,  must  be  held  to  have  miscarried, 
is  true  enough  ;  that  a  solution  which  may  satisfy  the 
historian  is,  nevertheless,  possible,  it  will  be  the  object 
of  the  following  pages  to  show. 

Let  us  first  glance  for  a  moment  at  the  explana- 
tions which  have  been  set  forth  up  to  this  time. 
Baronius  considers  the  myth  to  be  a  satire  on  John 

1  Ilaiidbuch  d.T  Kirchenjescliichle,  185G,  ii.  Band,  1.  AbtliLilung  g. 
225. 


POPE  JOAN.  7 

Ylir..  "  ob  nimiam  ejus  animi  facilitatcm  et  niollitu- 
dincni,"  qualities  winch  he  exhibited  more  especially 
in  the  affair  of  Photius.  Others,  Aventine  to  begin 
with,  and  after  him  Heumann  and  Schrbckh,  prefer  to 
leckon  the  supposed  satire  as  one  on  the  period 
of  female  rule  in  Rome,  the  rcii^n  of  Theodora  and 
Marozia  under  certain  popes,  some  of  whom  were 
called  John  ;  in  which  case,  however,  it  would  have  to 
be  transferred  from  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century  to 
the  tenth.  The  opinion  published  by  the  Jesuit 
Secrhi  in  Rome,  that  it  is  a  calumny  oricjmatinfj  with 
the  Cireeks,  namely  with  Photius,  is  eqally  inadmissi- 
ble. Tlic  first  Greek  who  mentions  the  circumstance 
is  ihe  monk  Harlaam  in  the  fourteenth  century.  Pagi's 
assertion  aiso,  which  P2ckhart  supports,  that  the  myth 
was  an  invention  of  tiie  Waldenscs,  is  pure  imai^in'a- 
tion.  The  myth  evidently  oriL;inated  in  Rome  t  e  f, 
and  the  first  to  give  it  circulation  were  not  tiie 
Waldcnses,  but  their  most  deadly  enemies — tiie 
Dominicans  and  Minorites. 

Leo  Aliatius  thought  that  a  false  pro[)hetess  called 
Thiota,  in  the  ninth  century,  gave  occasion  to  this 
myth.  Tiie  explanation  invented  by  Leibnitz^  is  also 
a  forced  attempt  to  meet  the  exigencies  of  the  case. 

1  Floret  sparsi  in  Tumulum  Pupissac,  ap.  Schi-id,  liiblioth.  Ilia. 
Ooctting.,  p.  367. 


8  POPE  JOAN. 

There  might  very  well,  he  thinks,  have  been  a  foreign 
bishop  (pontifex  /.  c.  episcopus),  really  a  woman  in  dis- 
guise, who  gave  birth  to  a  child  during  a  procession 
at  Rome,  and  thus  gave  occasion  to  the  story. 

Blasco  and  Henke  supposed  that  the  myth  about 
the  female  pope  was  a  satirical  allegory  on  the  origin 
and  circulation  of  the  false  decretals  of  Isidore.  This 
interpretation,  however,  is  entirely  at  variance  with 
the  genius  of  that  century,  an  age  in  which  men  had 
no  sense  for  satirical  allegories ;  and  then  too  it 
refutes  itself,  for  the  story  of  Pope  Joan  originated  at 
a  time  when  no  one  doubted  the  genuineness  of  the 
false  decretals  of  Isidore.  Nevertheless,  Gfrorer  has 
lately  taken  up  this  idea,  and  worked  it  out  in  a  still 
more  artificial  manner.^  "  The  whole  force  of  the 
fable,"  he  says,  "  resides  in  these  two  points,  that  the 
"  woman  was  a  native  of  Maycnce,  and  that  she  came 
"  from  Greece  (Athens),  and  ascended  the  papal  chair. 
"  In  the  first  particular  I  recognise  a  condemnation 
"  directed  against  the  canons  of  the  pseudo-Isidore,  in 
"  the  second  an  allegorical  censure  of  the  alliance 
"  which  Leo  IV.  wished  to  make  with  the  Byzan- 
"  tines.  .  .  It  is  said  that  in  the  later  days  of  Leo  IV. 
"  the  papal  power  in  Maycnce  and  Greece  was  abused, 
"  or  to  make  use  of  a  metaphor,  of  which  the  Italians 

1  Kirchengetchichle^  lu.,  iii.,  978. 


POPE  JOAN.  9 

"  are  very  fond  in  such  cases,  was  at  that  time 
"  prostituted^  Side  by  side  witli  this  explanation, 
which  can  scarcely  fail  to  provoke  a  smile  from  any 
one  who  is  acquainted  with  the  Middle  Ages,  stands 
the  extraordinary  circumstance,  that  there  is  no 
authority  whatever  for  this  intention  of  Leo  IV,  to 
compromise  himself  more  than  was  right  with  the 
Byzantines.  It  is  purely  an  hypothesis  of  Gfrorer's. 
But  the  myth  about  Pope  Joan,  as  thus  interpreted, 
is  in  turn  made  to  do  further  service  as  a  proof  of  the 
correctness  of  this  hypothesis,  as  well  as  for  his 
assumption  that  the  false  decretals  originated  in 
Mayence. 

In  short,  all  the  attempts  at  explanation,  which 
have  hitherto  been  made,  split  on  this  rock — that  the 
myth  had  its  origin  in  a  much  later  age  ;  when  the 
remembrance  of  the  events  and  circumstances  of  the 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries  had  long  ago  faded  away, 
or  at  most  existed  only  in  the  case  of  individual 
scholars,  and,  therefore,  could  not  form  material  for 
the  construction  of  a  myth.  That  is  to  say,  I  believe, 
that  I  can  without  difficulty  produce  convincing 
evidence,  that  the  myth  about  the  female-pope,  though 
it  may  possibly  have  had  somewhat  earlier  circula- 
tion in  the  mouth  of  the  people,  was  not  definitively 
put  into  writing  before  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 


lo  POPE  JOAN 

century.  This  evidence  could  not  have  been  given 
with  anytliing  hkc  certainty  before  tlie  present  time. 
For  it  is  only  during  the  last  forty^  years  that  all 
the  stores  of  mediaeval  manuscripts  in  the  whole  of 
Europe  have  been  hunted  through  with  a  care  such  as 
was  never  known  before.  Every  library  corner  has 
been  searched,  and  an  astounding  quantity  of  his- 
torical documents,  hitherto  unknown  (what  a  mass  of 
new  material  exists  in  the  Pertz  collection  alone,  for 
instance!),  has  been  brought  to  light.  Nevertheless, 
not  a  single  notice  of  the  myth  about  Pope  Joan  has 
been  discovered,  which  is  earlier  than  the  close,  or,  at 
the  very  most,  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century. 
We  can  now  say  quite  positively,  that  in  the  collected 
hterature,  whether  western  or  Byzantine,  of  the  four 
centuries  between  850  and  1250,  there  is  not  the 
faintest  reference  to  the  circumstance  of  a  female 
pope. 

For  a  long  time  it  was  supposed  that  the  m\-th, 
though  certainly  not  to  be  found  in  any  author  of  the 
ninth  or  tenth  century,  appeared  as  already  in  ex- 
istence in  the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries.  Alariaiuis 
Scotus-  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  to  mention  the 

1  [This  was  writton  in  18G3.] 

2  [Born,  prob;il)ly  in  Ireland,  about  1028  ;  died  at  Maycnrc,  inso, 
not  t<)  be  confoinidod  with  Marianas,  the  Franciscan,  a  Floniitino 
writer  of  liie  li[t;;eulh  century    Jn  lUoG  Mananus  ISeulu.s  euLercd  iJio 


POPE  JOAN.  II 

female  pope,  and  he  certainly  does  mention  her  in  the 
text  as  given  by  Pistorius.  Now,  however,  that  the 
text  in  the  great  Pertz  collection  has  been  edited  by 
Waitz^  according  to  the  most  ancient  manuscripts, 
the  fact  has  come  to  light,  that  Marianus  knew 
nothing  whatever  of  Pope  Joan.  In  his  case,  as  in 
the  case  of  so  many  other  authors,  the  short  mention 
of  the  female  pope  has  been  interpolated  at  a  later 
period.  In  the  chronicle  of  Sigebert  of  Gemblours, 
and  the  supplements  of  the  monks  of  Orcamp  {Auc- 
tarium  Ursicanipinuui)^  the  notice  of  the  papess  is 
wanting  in  all  original  manuscripts.  She  was  first 
inserted  by  the  first  editor  in  the  year  1513.^    Kurtz 

abbey  of  S.  Murtiu  at  Cologne;  in  1059  he  moved  to  the  abbey  of 
Fiildii,  and  thence  in  10G9  to  Mayence.  He  passed  for  the  most 
learned  man  of  liis  age,  being  a  mathematician  and  theologian  as 
well  as  historian.  His  Chronicon  Universale  is  based  on  Uassiodorus, 
aiigni 'iited  from  Kiisebius  and  Rede,  and  the  ehronieles  of  Hildes- 
hcini  and  Wiirzliiirg,  and  extends  down  to  the  year  1083  ;  published 
at  Hasle  by  Herold,  1559.] 

1  Monumen'a  German.  Hist,  viii.,  550.  [v.  551.  vi.  340,  470.] 

2  "  In  nnllo  qmni  noverimiis  SigeberLi  eodiei>  oeeiirrit  locus 
"  famosu:^  de  Johanna  i>apissa,  quem  hoc  loco  editio  prinreps  ex- 
"  iiihet,"  says  the  latest  editor,  Bcthniann,  ap.  Pertz,  viii.,  340.  Com- 
|)!ire  the  remark,  p.  470,  where  Brthmann  says  decisively,  "  ni mo 
"  itritur  restat  (as  interixilater  of  the  passage)  nisi  primus  i-^litor, 
"  sive  is  Antonius  Iliifus  fuerit,  sive  Heiiricus  Stcphaniis."  It  is  a 
mistake  wh'  n  Kurtz  elsewliere  (p.  228  i  says  with  regard  to  Sigebert 
and  Marianus:  "  Th<'  oldest  editors  would  scarcely  have  added  the 
"  passages  in  question  out  of  their  own  heads  ;  and  therefore  it  is 
"  piubuLle  that  the  pa.s.sages  were  purposely  omitted  in  the  ct)dieeu 


12  POPE  JOAN. 

has  lately  appealed  again  to  the  supposed  evidence  of 
Otto  of  Freysingen.^  In  the  list  of  the  popes,  con- 
tinued down  to  the  year  15 13,  which  is  printed  with 
his  historical  work,^  Pope  John  VII.  (in  the  year  705) 
is  marked  as  a  woman,  without  one  single  word  of 
explanation.  And  in  the  edition  of  the  Pantheon,  as 
given  by  Pistorius,  we  find  in  the  list  of  the  popes 
these  words,  "  the  Papess  Johanna  is  not  reckoned." 
Meanwhile  a  close  investigation  of  the  oldest  and 
best  manuscripts  of  Gottfried's  Pantheon  and  of  Otto's 
chronicle  have  brought  it  to  light,  that  originally 
neither  the  word  "  foemina "  was  placed  in  Otto's 
chronicle  against  the  name  of  John  VII.,  nor  the  gloss 
"  Johanna  Papissa  non  numeratur "  in  the  Pantheon 

"  which  they  had  before  them."  There  are  no  signs  whatever  of 
anything  being  intentionally  omitted  or  cflfaced  ;  in  many  of  the 
manuscripts,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  many  signs  of  subsequent 
insertions  and  additions  in  the  margin.  [Sigebert  was  born  about 
1030,  and  died  1112.  His  chronicle  extends  from  381,  where  Eusc- 
bius  ended,  to  1112.] 

1  Kirchcngeschv'hte,  ii.,  226 

2  [Otto,  IJishop  of  Freysingen,  went  with  his  brother,  Conrad  III., 
on  his  crusade  to  the  Holy  Land,  resuming  his  diocese  on  his  return. 
He  died  in  September  1158,  having  held  the  see  twenty  years.  His 
chronicle  in  seven  books  extends  down  to  1146.  The  first  four  books 
are  a  mere  compilation  from  Orosius,  Eusebius,  Isidore,  liede,  &c. ; 
the  last  three  are  of  great  value.  He  also  wrote  two  books  De  Gculii 
Fiideiici  I.  ^Enobarb',  which  come  down  to  the  year  1157.] 


POPE  JOAN.  13 

between  Leo  IV.  and  Benedict  III. ;  both  of  which 
insertions  are  given  in  the  printed  editions.^ 

In  the  chronicle  of  Otto  the  addition  to  the  name 
of  John  VII.  is  manifestly  the  work  of  a  later  copyist 
or  reader,  who  inserted  the  word  quite  at  random, 
because  he  was  bound  to  have  a  female  John  some- 
where among  the  popes.  The  fact  that  this  John 
comes  as  early  as  the  year  705  was  the  less  likely  to 
puzzle  him,  because  the  list  of  popes  in  this  chronicle 
does  not  give  the  dates.^ 

The  first  who  really  took  up  the  myth  is  the 
author  of  a  chronicle,  to  which  Stephen  dc  Bourbon 
appeals    without    giving    any    more    exact    quota- 

1  [Tlmt  confusion  prevailed  in  some  of  the  list.s  of  the  popes 
precisely  at  this  point  is  shown  by  an  annalist,  who  apparently 
wrote  in  Halberstiidt  854:  "  Henedictus  papa,  ut  quidani  Tolunt, 
"  hoc  anno  factiis  est,  et  post  hnne  I'aiilus  (!),  jMjst  enni  Stephanus 
"  per  annos  qnutuor  sedisse  inveniuntur."' — Uaxmann,  Polilik  der 
Papste,  i.,  p.  361,  note] 

2  In  the  gtxMl  original  manuseri|)ts  of  the  Pantheon  in  the   royal 

library  at  Munich  the  addition  about  Pope  Joan  is  wanting.     These 

are: — Cod.  Lat.  43  (from  Hartmaiui  S(  bedel's  collection)  f.  118,  b. 

Cod.  Windberg.    37,  or  C<k1.  Lat.  22,237,  f.  168  b.  Similarly  in  tho 

oldest  manuscripts  of  the  chronicle  of  Otto  in  the  Munich  library 

the  addition  to  the  name  of  John  VII.  does  not  appear.     These  are 

Cod.  Weihensteph.  Gl,  or  Lat.  21, .561,  which  is  of  about  the  wimo 

d.itc.  Cotl.  Frising.  177,  or  Lat.  6,517.  Coti.  Scheftlarn.  Lat.  17,i:4, 

in  which  the  list  of  popes  comes  to  au  end  with  Hadrian  IV.,  and 

til  :ielure  1:5  also  of  the  samo  date. 
2 


14  POPE  JOAN. 

\\o\-\}  That  is  to  say,  Stephen,  a  French  Doniinic;m, 
born  towards  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  died  in 
the  year  1 261,  in  his  work  on  the  Seven  Gifts  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.^  which  was  written  just  about  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  makes  the  first  mention  of 
Pope  Joan,  whom  he  asserts  he  has  discovered  in 
a  chronicle.  Now  seeing  that  he  refers  with  exactness 
to  all  the  sources  from  which  he  has  gathered  together 
the    collection    of  passages    which   contribute  to  his 

1  [He  merely  says]  "dicitur  in  chronicis."  Hcnieaiis  no  more 
tliau  one  clironiele  ;  Chronica  is  constantly  used  in  the  plural  as  a 
title.  Otherwise  Stephen  would  naturally  have  added  "  variis''  or 
"  ]ilui-ibus." 

2  It  has  never  been  printed.  The  whole,  or  portions  of  it,  o.\ist 
in  the  Freneli  libraries,  one  portion  of  it  in  the  Munich  library. 
Eehard  was  the  first  to  cite  it  at  great  length  in  his  work,  Suncli 
Thomx  Summa  Suo  Auctori  Vindiculit,  Paris,  1T03  ;  and  again  in  the 
Scn'/'lores  Ordinis  I'nclicalorum,  jit.  i. 

[The  jiassage  from  Stephen  de  Hourbon  as  cited  by  Gieseler 
(ii.  31  )  from  (jiietif  and  Eihard,  Scriptores  Oidiiiis  Pradieatoriiui, 
i.  307,  reads  :  Accidit  autem,  mirabilis  audacia,  imo  insana,  cina 
aim.  Dcm  .^■■C.  [C'M?j  ut  dicitur  in  chronicis.  (juacdani  mnlicr 
liti  rata,  et  iM  arte  nondi  (notantli  ?)  edocta,  adsunto  virili  habitii,  (t 
virum  setiiigens,  venit  llomam,  et  tarn  industria,  cjuani  liti  latura 
accepta,  facta  est  notaritis  curiae,  post  diaboloprocnrautecardirialis, 
jxistra  l'ai)a.  llaec  imjjraeguatu  cum  ascenderct  pejxrit.  Q  lud 
cum  uovisset  Uomana  justitia,  ligatis  pedibus  ejus  ad  pides  rcjui 
di^liiK  la  est  extra  uib<'m,  ctad  diniidiani  leucam  a  i)o])iilo  lapidata, 
ct  iibi  fuit  mortua,  ibi  fuit  sei)ulta,  ct  super  lapiditn  su|)er  ^a 
liu.^ituni  scriptus  est  vcrsicultis  :  "  Parce  juiter  jjatrum  i)a]ii->ae 
cd''re  |iartuni."  The  sauK!  story  ajip-ars  in  an  cnlarg<'tl  form  in 
jMarliiii  Polniii  (f  12  (H),  ( 'hron.,  and  here  the  passage  is  p  rliiijjs 
gi-iiuine,  allliuugh  it  is  al.so  wanting  in  several  MSS.         li.  JJ.  S.  j 


POPE  JOAN.  15 

practical  homilctic  object,  we  can,  at  least  with  great 
probability,  show  from  what  chronicle  he  has  obtain- 
ed this  mention  of  Pope  Joan.  Among  chroniclers  he 
names  Eusebius,  Jerome,  Bede,  Odo,  Hugo  of  St. 
Victor,  the  "  Roman  Cardinal,"  and  John  de  Mailly, 
a  Dominican.  We  may  set  aside  all  but  the  two  last- 
The  "  Roman  Cardinal"  (or  Cardinal  Romanus  (.-') — 
there  were  several  of  this  name,  but  none  of  them 
wrote  a  chronicle)  is  probably  none  other  than  the 
author  of  the  Historia  Miscdla,  or  continuation  of 
Eutropius,  whom  the  Dominican,  Tolomeo  of  Lucca, 
also  quotes  later  on  among  his  authorities  as  Paulus 
Diaconus  Cardinalis  }  but  he  cannot  be  distinguished 
with  certainty.  It  remains -then  that  the  lost,  or  as 
yet  undiscovered,  chronicle  of  the  Dominican  Jeande 
Mailly,-  who,  moreover,  must  have  been  a  con- 
temporary of  Stephen,  is  the  only  source  to  which 
the  latter  can  have  been  indebted  for  his  account  of 
Pope  Joan.  And  Jean  de  Maiil}',  we  may  be 
tolerably  certain,  got  it  from  popular  report. 

We  can,  therefore,  consider  it  as  established — that 
not  until  the  year  1240  or  1250,  was  the  myth  about 
the  woman-pope  put  into  writing  and  transferred  to 
works    of  history.       Several    decades    more    passed, 

1  C'f.  Qu'  tif  it  Kiliard  Scriptores  0  dinis  Prx  licitorum,  i.    544. 

2  On  him  sec  Uio  IliHoire  liltcraire  de  la  Fr  mce,  xviii.,  532. 


1 6  POPE  JOAN. 

however,  before  it  came  actually  into  circulation  and 
became  really  wide-spread.  The  chronicle  of  Jean  de 
Mailly  seems  to  have  remained  in  obscurity,  for  no 
one,  with  the  exception  of  his  brother  Dominican, 
Stephen,  notices  it ;  and  even  Stephen's  large  work — 
great  as  was  its  value,  especially  to  preachers,  on 
account  of  the  quantity  of  examples  which  it  contain- 
ed, was  not  possessed  by  very  many,  as  is  proved 
by  the  scarcity  of  existing  manuscripts  of  it.  The 
Spcaihan  Morale,  which  bears  the  name  of  Vincent  of 
Beauvais,  was  the  chief  cause  of  this.  For  this  work  ap- 
propriated most  of  the  examples  and  instances  given  by 
Stephen,  but  was  superior  to  Stephen's  books  both  in 
convenience  of  arrangement  and  fulness  of  matter, 
and  eclipsed  it  so  completely,  that  the  narrative 
about  Pope  Joan,  in  the  form  in  which  it  appears 
in  Stephen's  work,  is  to  be  found  nowhere  else. 

The  chronicle  of  Martinus  Polonus  has  been  the 
principal  means  of  giving  circulation  to  the  myth. 
This  book,  which  gives  a  synchronistic  history  of  the 
popes  and  emperors  in  the  form  of  a  dry,  mechanical, 
and  utterly  uncritical  collection  of  biographical  notes, 
exercised  a  most  extraordinary  influence  on  the 
chroniclers  and  historians  from  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century  onwards,  especially  on  their  ways 
of  thinking  in  the  latter  part  of  the  Middle  Ages. 


POPE  JOAN.  17 

Wattenbach's^  statement,  that  Martlnus  Polonus 
became  almost  the  exclusive  historical  instructor  of 
the  catholic  world,  is  not  an  exaggeration.  Of  no 
other  historical  book  is  there  such  an  inexhaustible 
number  of  manuscripts  in  existence  as  of  this.  AH 
volumes  of  the  Archiv  fur  daitsche  Gcschiclitskiaide 
show  this.  And  indeed  the  book  was  held  in  estima- 
tion in  almost  all  countries  alike,  was  translated  into 
all  languages,  was  continued  over  and  over  again, 
and  still  more  frequently  copied  by  later  chroniclers. 
That  the  effect  of  such  a  book,  utterly  unhistorical 
and  stuffed  with  fables,  was  to  the  last  degree  mis- 
chievous, so  that  (as  Wattenbach  says)  the  careful, 
thorough,  and  critical  investigation  of  the  history 
of  the  early  Middle  Ages,  prosecuted  with  so  much 
zeal  during  the  twelfth  century,  was  completely 
choked,  or  nearly  so,  by  Martin's  chronicle,  cannot 
be  denied. 

The  position  of  the  author  could  not  fail  to  win  for 
his  history  of  the  popes  an  amount  of  authority  such 
as  no  other  similar  writing  obtained.  Troppau  was 
his  birth-place,  the  Dominican  order  his  profession. 
He  was  for  a  long  time  the  chaplain  and  penitentiary 
of  the  popes ;  as  such  lived  naturally  at  the  papal 
court,    followed,    everywhere,    the  Curia,   which   was 

1  Deuischlands  Ges'hichtsquellen,  8.  426. 


1 8  POPE  JOAN. 

then  constantly  on  the  move,  and  died  [a.d.  1278]  as 
archbishop  designate  of  Gncsen.  Ilis  book,  therefore, 
was  considered  to  a  certain  extent  to  be  the  official 
history  of  the  popes,  issuing  from  the  Curia  itself. 
And  hence  people  accepted  the  history  of  Pope  Joan 
also,  which  they  found  in  Martinus  Polonus,  all  the 
more  readily  and  unsuspectingly.  The  form  in  which 
he  gives  the  myth  became  the  prevailing  one  ;  and 
most  authors  have  contented  themselves  with  copy- 
ing the  passage  from  his  chronicle  word  for  word. 
Nevertheless,  Martin  himself,  as  can  be  proved,  knew 
nothing  about  Pope  Joan,  or,  at  any  rate,  said 
nothing  about  her.  Not  until  several  years  after  his 
death  did  attempts  begin  to  be  made  to  insert  the 
myth  into  his  book.  It  is  no  doubt  correct  that 
Martin  himself  prepared  a  second  and  later  edition  of 
his  work,  which  reaches  down  to  Nicolas  III.,  1277, 
while  the  first  edition  only  goes  down  to  Clement  IV. 
(died  1268).  But  the  second  is  exactly  like  the  first 
in  arrangement.  Each  pope,  and  each  emperor  on 
the  opposite  page,  had  as  many  lines  assigned  to  him 
as  he  reigned  years,  and  each  page  contained  fifty 
lines,  that  is,  embraced  half  a  century.  Hence,  in  the 
copies  which  kept  to  the  original  arrangement  of  the 
author,  additions  or  insertions  could  only  be  made  in 
those  places  where  the  account  of  a  pope  or  emperor 


POPE  JOAN.  19 

did  not  fill  all  the  lines  assigned  to  him,  owing  to  the 
short  period  of  his  reign.  But  the  insertion  of  a  pope 
had  been  rendered  impossible  by  Martin  himself  and 
all  the  copyists  who  kept  to  the  plan  of  the  book, 
by  means  of  the  detailed  chronology,  according  to 
which  every  line  had  a  date,  and  in  the  case  of  each 
pope  and  emperor  the  length  of  his  reign  was  exactly 
stated.  But  for  this  same  reason  Pope  Joan  also, 
if  she  had  originally  had  a  place  in  his  book,  could 
not  have  been  effaced,  nor  have  been  omitted  from  the 
copies  which  held  fast  to  the  arrangement  of  the 
original. 

Pope  Joan  then  docs  not  occur  in  the  eldest  manu- 
scripts of  Martinus.  She  is  wanting  especially  in 
those  which  have  kept  to  the  exact  chronological 
method  of  the  author.  Nor  is  the  opinion  tenable, 
that  Martinus  brought  her  into  the  latest  edition 
of  his  book  prepared  by  himself  That  theory  is  con- 
tradicted by  manuscripts,  which  come  down  to  tlie 
time  of  Nicolas  III.,  and,  nevertheless,  contain  no 
trace-  of  Pope  Joan.  Echard^  has  already  noticed 
several  such  manuscripts.  The  exquisite  Alders- 
bach^    manuscript,    now    in    the    Royal    Library  at 

1  On  this  point  roc  Qintif  ct  Elianl.  Scriptora  OnUni^  Prv- 
dicaioum,  1.  3GT  ;  and  Li'(|iiiin  Oriena  Chr.  iii.,  3H5. 

2  Aldersp.  IGl,  fol.  Pcrgam. 


20  POPE  yOAN. 

Munich,  gives  the  same  evidence.  There  are, 
however,  manuscripts  in  which  her  history  is  written 
in  the  margin  at  the  bottom  of  the  sheet,  or  as  a  gloss 
at  the  side.  ^  It  was  thence  gradually,  and  one  may 
add  very  violently,  thrust  in  the  text.  This  was  done 
in  various  ways:  either  Benedict  III.,  the  successor  of 
Leo,  was  struck  out,  and  Pope  Joan  put  in  his  place, 
as  is  the  case  in  a  Hamburgh  codex  reaching  down  to 
the  year  1302.  Or  she  is  placed,  usually  by  some 
later  hand,  without  any  date  being  given,  as  an 
addition  or  mere  legend  in  the  vacant  space  left  after 
Leo  IV.  Or,  lastly — merely  in  order  to  gain  the  neces- 
sary two  years  and  a  half  for  her  reign — the  whole 
chronological  reckoning  of  the  author  is  thrown  into 
confusion  ;  either  by  assigning  an  earlier  date  than  is 
correct  to  several  of  Leo's  predecessors,  and  that  as 
far  back  as  the  year  800 ;  or  by  giving  to  individual 
popes  fewer  years  than  belong  to  them.  This 
eagerness  to  interpolate  the  female  pope  in  the  book 
at  all  hazards — so  to  speak, — without  shrinking  from 
the  most  arbitrary  alterations  in  the  chronology 
in  order  to  attain  this  object,  is  certainly  somewhat 
astonishing.    Just  the  very  circumstance  which  above 

1  In   the    Archv  fur   alien'  deutsche    Geschichlskunde   quotations 
from  several  of  tliese  arc  given,  e.  g.  vii.,  657. 

2  Archiv  vi..  230. 


POPE  JOAN.  21 

all  others  conferred  on  Martin's  book  a  certain 
amount  of  value,  viz.  the  painstaking  and  continuous 
chronological  reckoning  line  by  line,  has  been 
sacrificed  in  several  manuscripts,^  merely  in  order  to 
make  the  insertion  of  Pope  Joan  possible  ;  or  else 
only  one  year  has  been  placed  against  the  name  of 
each  pope,  either  in  the  margin  or  in  the  text, 
in  order  to  conceal  the  disagreement  between  the 
insertion  of  Pope  Joan  and  the  chronological  plan  of 
the  author. 

It  was  in  the  period  between  1278  and  13 12  that 
the  interpolation  took  place  ;  for  Tolomeo  of  Lucca, 
who  completed  his  historical  work  in  the  year  1312, 
remarks^  that  all  the  authorities  which  he  had  read 
placed  Benedict  III.  next  after  Leo  IV.;  Martinus 
Polonus  was  the  only  one  who  put  Johannes  Anglicus 
in  between.  By  this  means  two  facts  arc  established  ; 
first,  the  industrious  collector  Tolomeo  knew  of  no 
writing  in  which  a  mention  of  Pope  Joan  was  to 
be  found,  except  the  chronicle  of  Martinus;  secondly, 
the  copy  of  Martinus  with  which  he  was  acquainted 
was  one  which  had  her  already  inserted,  and  that  in 
the  text.  Had  the  account  of  her  merely  been  written 

1  "Nulla  chronologia,  scd  aclest  fabula,"  says  Echard  of  stVitM 
manuscripts  of  Martinus  which  he  had  seen,  p.  369. 

2  nut.  Ecclei.,  16,  8. 


22  POPE  JOAN. 

alongside  in  the  margin,  this  would  undoubtedly 
have  aroused  Tolomeo's  suspicions,  and  he  would 
have  noticed  the  fact  in  his  own  work. 

Another  main  vehicle  for  circulating  the  myth 
about  the  papess  was  the  chronicle  Florcs  Tcmporum, 
which  exists  in  numerous  manuscripts  under  the 
names  of  Martinus  Minorita,  Herrmannus  Januensis, 
and  Herrmannus  Gigas.  It  was  printed  by  Eccard, 
and,  in  another  form,  by  Meuschen  ;  and  after  that  of 
Martinus  Polonus,  was  the  most  widely  circulated  of 
all  the  later  chronicles.  Unlike  Martinus  Polonus, 
however,  it  appears  to  have  come  into  general  use 
only  in  Germany.  It  reaches  down  to  1290,  and  is  in 
the  main  not  much  more  than  a  compilation  from  the 
chronicle  of  Martinus  Polonus,  as  the  author  himself 
states.  According  to  the  conjecture  of  Eccard  and 
others,  Martinus  Minorita  is  the  original  author,^  and 
Herrmannus  Januensis  or  Gigas  the  continucr^  of  the 
chronicle  down  to  the  year  1349.  Pcrtz,^  on  the  other 
hand,  is  of  opinion  that  what  is  printed  under  the 
name  of  Martinus  Minorita  is  only  a  poor  extract 
from  the  work  of  Herrmannus  Gigas,  who  brought 
his  chronicle  down  to  the  year  1290,  and  died  in  1336. 

1  Archiv  der  Ge.ie'lscha/l/ur  deutsche  Geschichlskunde,  viii.,  833. 

2  Archiv  i.,  402  ff. 

3  Acliiv  vii.,  115. 


POPE  JOAN.  23 

The  relation  between  the  Minorite  Martin  and  the 
Wilhclmite  Herrmann  of  Genoa  appears  meanwhile 
to  be  tills  : — that  the  latter  has  copied  the  IMinoritc, 
with  1  many  omissions  and  additions,  but  without 
mentioning;  him.  Martin  the  Penitentiary — that  is 
Martinus  Polonus — is  given  as  the  main  authority. 
It  was  from  him,  then,  beyond  all  doubt,  that  the 
story  about  Pope  Joan  passed  (embellished  with 
additions)  into  chronicles  of  considerably  later  date  ; 
for  manuscripts  in  which  it  is  wanting  have  not  come 
within  my  knowledge. 

The  story  of  Pope  Joan  has  also  been  inserted  in 
the  so-called  Anastasius  2  (the  most  ancient  collection 
known  of  biographies  of  the  popes),  and  in  precisely 
the  same  form  as  that  in  which  it  exists  in  Martinus 
Polonus.  The  literal  wording  of  the  text  does  not 
allow  the  possibility  that  the  story  really  formed  any 

1  Bnins,  in  Galilcr's  Journal  fir  thfo'og.  Lit.  1811,  vol.  vi.,  p.  S^^ 
etc.  Bruns  had  a  manuscript  before  him  in  Hilmstadt,  whitli  was 
marked  as  a  work  of  Herrmannus  Minorita.  But  at  the  end  of  tho 
document  the  author  was  correctly  styled  Ilcrrmanuus  Ordinis  S. 
Wilhelmi. 

2  [Anastasius,  the  Librarian  of  tho  Vatican,  took  part  in  A.n.  8G9 
In  tlio  eii^hth  General  Council  at  Constantinople,  wliere  his  leaiiiini^ 
and  knowledge  of  Latin  and  Greek  were  of  great  service  to  tlio 
papal  legates.  His  celebrated  Liber  PonUjicalis  is  a  comjiilation  of 
lives  of  tho  popes  from  S.  Peter  down  to  Nicolas  I.,  first  priut-d  at 
Maycnce  in  1602.  Only  the  lives  of  some  of  the  popes  of  his  own 
times  can  be  regarded  as  his  own  composition.] 


24  POPE  JOAN. 

part  of  the  original  text.  The  interpolation  must 
have  been  made  with  the  most  foolish  wantonness,  or 
just  as  has  been  done  in  the  Heidelberg  manuscripts, 
by  striking  out  Benedict  III.,  and  then  inserting  Joan 
in  his  place.  In  other  copies  she  has  been  added  by  a 
later  hand  in  the  margin,  at  the  side,  or  quite  at  the 
bottom  of  the  page. 

The  most  natural  supposition,  and  the  one  which 
Gabler^  also  follows,  seems  then  to  be,  that  the 
papess  passed  from  Martinus  Polonus  into  the  few, 
and  very  much  later,  manuscripts  of  Anastasius  which 
contain  it.  Nevertheless,  I  am  driven  to  the  con- 
jecture that  the  myth  was  in  the  first  instance  added 
at  the  end  of  some  copy  of  the  collection  of  biogra- 
phies of  the  popes  which  bears  the  name  of  Anastasius. 
For  it  has  long  ago  been  remarked  ^  that  the  life  of 
Benedict  III.  in  this  collection  is  the  work  of  a  dif- 
ferent author  from  that  of  the  lives  immediately  pre- 
ceding it,  especially  of  the  very  detailed  life  of  Leo 
IV.  There  must,  therefore,  beyond  all  doubt,  have 
been  copies  which  came  to  an  end  with  Leo  IV., 
whose  biographer  was  obviously  a  contemporary. 
The  notice  of  Pope  Joan  might  then  have  been  added 

1  Gablcr's  Kleinere  theolog.  Schriflen,  vol.  i.,  p.  44G. 

2  Sec  Bahr,  Gachichte  der  Rom.  Literutur  im  Karoling.  Zeilalter, 
p.  269. 


POPE  JOAN.  25 

at  the  end  by  a  later  hand,  and  from  thence  have 
passed  into  the  manuscripts  of  Martinus  Polonus. 

One  sees  this  from  the  catalogue  of  manuscripts 
which  Vignoli  gives  at  the  beginning  of  his  edition. 
The  Cod.  Vatic.  3764  reaches  down  to  Hadrian  II., 
the  Cod.  Vatic.  5869  only  down  to  Gregory  II. ;  the 
Cod.  629  to  Hadrian  I. ;  others  to  John  VIII.,  Nicolas 
I.,  Leo  III.,  and  so  forth.  In  Cod.  3762,  which  comes 
down  to  the  year  1 142,  the  fable  of  the  papcss  is 
added  in  later  and  smaller  handwriting  underneath 
in  the  margin. 

This  conjecture,  one  must  allow,  is  by  no  means 
easy  to  prove.  But  supposing  it  correct,  we  have  then 
the  simplest  of  all  explanations  for  the  interpolation 
of  Pope  Joan  between  Leo  IV.  and  Benedict  III., 
where  she  certainly  has  not  the  ^  slightest  connection 
with  the  history  of  the  time.  Meanwhile,  I  find  in 
Martinus  himself  reasons  for  this  place  being  assigned 
to  her,  and  the  followmg  two  in  particular.  The  first 
is  a  mere  matter  of  chance,  arising  out  of  the  me- 
chanical arrangement  ;  for  Martinus  did  not  know 

1  Leo  IV.  died  July  11th,  855.  Benedict  was  forthwith  [tho 
same  month]  dented;  and,  after  tlie  emperor  had  given  his  consent, 
was  consecrated  on  29th  of  September  in  the  same  y(>ar,  the  very 
day  after  tho  Emperor  Lothair  died.  It  is  notorious  that  contem- 
poraries, such  as  Prudentius  and  Hinemar,  notice  that  15 -nedict  was 
Leo  s  immediate  successor,  and  a  diploma  of  Benedict's  dated  as 
early  as  October  7th,  855  (Mansi  Concill.  xv.,  113)  is  still  extant. 
3 


26  POPE  JOAN. 

how  to  fill  up  the  eight  lines  which  he  was  obliged  to 
devote  to  the  eight  years  of  Leo's  pontificate,  so 
that  the  first  lines  of  the  page  which  contained  the 
second  half  of  the  ninth  century  remained  empty. 
Here,  therefore,  the  interpolation  could  be  managed 
without  the  slightest  trouble.  But  there  was  a  further 
reason  in  the  nature  of  the  story  itself.  For  the 
extreme  improbability  that  a  woman  should  be  pro- 
moted to  the  highest  ecclesiastical  office,  and  be 
chosen  by  all  as  pope,  was  explained  in  the  myth  by 
her  great  intellectual  attainments.  She  surpassed 
every  one  in  Rome,  so  it  was  said,  in  learning. 
Naturally  then,  as  soon  as  a  definite  historical  place 
had  to  be  assigned  to  her  (the  popular  form  of  the 
myth  had  not  troubled  itself  with  fixed  dates),  a 
tolerably  early  period — at  any  rate,  one  anterior  to 
the  time  of  Gregory  VII. — had  to  be  chosen  for  her. 
P'or  this,  however,  they  were  obliged  to  fall  back  on 
a  period  in  which  there  was  only  a  single  instance 
known  of  a  man  being  elected  to  the  papacy  on 
account  of  his  preeminent  knowledge.  Since  Gregory 
the  Great  there  had  been  no  pope  who  was  really 
very  remarkable  for  learning.  In  the  four  centuries 
between  John  VI.,  /or,  and  Gregory  VII.,  this  very 
Leo  IV.  is  the  only  one  whom  Martinus  notices  in 
particular  as  a  man  who  "  divinarum  scripturarum 


POPE  JOAN.  27 

extltit  fcrventissimus  scrutator,"  one  who  already,  in 
the  monastery  [of  St.  Martin]  to  which  his  parents  had 
sent  him  for  purposes  of  study,  became  remarkable 
for  his  learning  no  less  than  for  his  mode  of  life,  and 
on  this  account  also  was  unanimously  1  elected  pope 
by  the  Romans  after  the  death  of  Sergius.  On  that 
occasion,  then,  it  was  intellectual  attainment  which 
influenced  the  votes  of  the  Romans  ;  and  therefore  it 
might  happen  that  a  woman,  whose  sex  was  not 
known,  could  be  chosen  as  pope  by  the  Romans, 
because  of  her  intellectual  superiority.  Now  the  inter- 
polated Martinus  speaks  of  Joan  in  much  the  same 
terms  as  of  Leo;  "in  diversis  scientiis  ita  profecit, 
"  ut  nullus  sibi  par  inveniretur ; "  and,  "  quum  in  urbe 
"  vita  et  scientia  magnae  opinionis  cssct,  in  papam 
"  concorditer  eligitur."  And  hence  in  Martinus  Polo- 
nus,  who  speaks  in  this  manner  of  no  other  ^  pope  in 
that  century,  the  place  assigned  to  Pope  Joan  was 
that  immediately  after  Leo  IV.,  whom  she  resembled 

1  [Sergius  died  Jan.  27th.  Leo  IV.  was  forthwith  elected,  and 
consecrated  on  April  10th,  without  waitini?  even  for  the  leave  of  tlio 
sovereign,  not  as  denying  his  authority,  but  because  of  the  pressing 
fear  of  the  Saracens,  who  had  ventured  up  the  Tiber,  and  plundered 
the  Basilica  of  St.  Peter  at  the  end  of  846.  See  Baxmann,  PolUik 
der  Piipste,  vol.  i.,  p.  352.  This  fear  of  the  Saracens  may  have  had 
something  to  do  with  the  unanimity  of  the  electors.] 

2  For  Gcrbert  (Sylvester  II.)  owed  his  promotion,  990-1003,  ac- 
cording to  Martinus,  not  to  his  great  learning,  but  to  the  devil. 


28  POPE  JOAN. 

in  this  particular.  And  since  every  one  took  the 
work  of  Martinus  as  their  authority,  she  retained  this 
position. 

It  is  at  the  stage  when  the  myth  was  just  beginning 
to  gain  circulation,  and  was  still  received  with  suspi- 
cion on  many  sides,  that  the  passages  on  the  subject 
in  the  Historical  Mirror  of  Van  Macrlant  and  in 
Tolomeo  of  Lucca  come  in.  Maerlant's  Dutch  chro- 
nicle is  in  verse,  and  is  mainly  taken  from  Vincent  of 
Beauvais,  but  with  additions  from  other  sources. 
Maerlant  says  moreover  (about  the  year  1283),  "  I  do 
"  not  1  feel  clear  or  certain  whether  it  is  fable  or  fact ; 
*'  but  in  tlip  chronicles  of  the  popes  it  is  not  usually 
"  found."  So  also  a  manuscript  list  of  the  popes 
down  to  John  XXII.  (13) :  "  Et^  in  paucis  chronicis 
"  invcnitur." 

One  of  the  first  who  took  the  story  of  Pope  Joan 
from  the  interpolated  Martinus  Polonus  was  Gcof- 
froi  dc  Courlon,  a  Benedictine  of  the  Abbey  of  St. 
Pierre  le  Vif  at  Sens,  whose  chronicle,  ^  a  somewhat 
rough  compilation,  reaches  down  to  1295. 

1  Spiegel  Historical,  uitgcg.  door  dc  Maatschappij  dcr  ncderl, 
Itttcrk.  Loyd.jn,  1857,  iii.,  220. 

2  This  is  appended  to  the  manuscript  of  tlio  Olia  Imperialia  by  Ger- 
vasius  in  Leydcn.     Wensing,  de  Pausin  Johanna,  p.  9. 

3  Notices  et  Ex' raits,  11.,  16.  He  adds,  moreover,  "  Undc  dicitur 
"  qnod  llomani  In  consuetudlncm  traxcrunt  probarc  sexus  olectl  per 
*■'■  foramen  catlicdraj  lapideaj." — Sec  Hist.  Lit.  de  France,  xxi.,  10. 


POPE  JOAN.  29 

Next  comes  the  Dominican  Bernard  Guidonis,  ih 
his  unprinted  Florcs  Chronicoruni,  and  also  (in  the 
year  131 1)  in  his  now  printed  history  ^  of  the  popes. 
He  inserts  Johannes  Teutonicus  (not  Ancrlicus,  there- 
fore, according  to  him)  natione  Maguntinus,  together 
with  the  whole  fable  about  Pope  Joan,  keeping  faith- 
fully to  his  authority,  Martinus  Polonus. 

About  the  same  period  another  Dominican,  Leo  of 
Orvieto,  contributed  to  the  circulation  of  the  fable, 
by  receiving  it  into  his  history  of  the  popes  and 
emperors,  which  reached  down  to  Clement  V.  [1305]. 
In  his  case  also,<  Martinus  Polonus  is  the  source  from 
which  he  draws  in  this  particular,  as  also  in  his  whole 
book.2 

Now  follow  in  the  first  half  of  the  fourteenth 
century  the  Dominican  John  of  Paris,  Siffrid  of 
Meissen,  Occam  the  Minorite  (who  turned  the  story 
of  Pope  Joan  to  account  in  his  controversy  with  John 
XXII.),  the  Greek  Barlaam,  the  English  Benedictine 
Ranulph  Higden,  the  Augustine  Amalrich  Augerii, 
Boccaccio,  and  Petrarch.^ 

1  Mali  Sp'cil.  Rom.  vi.,  202. 

2  In  the  third  volume  of  Lami's  Delicia  Fruditorum,  Florcnt . 
1732,  p,  143. 

3  Chronica  delle  Vite  (/«'  Pontffici,  Ac,  Vcnctia,  1507,  f.  Lv.  Ho  is 
here  called  Giovanni  d'Anglia,  and  the  dates  are  advanced  two 
years,  so  that  Benedict  III.  is  placed  ia  the  year  857  (instead  of 


30  POPE  JOAN. 

A  chronicle  of  the  popes  by  Aimery  of  Peyrat, 
Abbot  of  Moissac,  written  in  the  year  1399,  has 
Johannes  Anghcus  in  the  Hst  of  popes,  with  the 
remark  :  "  Some^  say  that  this  pope  was  a  woman." 

The  Dominican  Jacobe  de  Acqui,^  who  wrote  about 
the  year  1 370,  inserts  the  name  without  this  remark, 
but  with  the  extraordinary  statement  that  this  ponti- 
ficate lasted  nineteen  years. 

Of  course  people  in  general  regarded  the  cir- 
cumstance as  to  the  last  degree  disgraceful  to  the 
Roman  See,  and,  indeed,  to  the  whole  Church.  The 
woman-pope  had  reigned  for  two  years  and  a  half, 
had  performed  a  vast  number  of  functions,  all  of 
which  were  now  null  and  void  ;  and,  added  to  all  this, 
there  was  the  scandal  of  her  giving  birth  to  a  child  in 
the  open  street.  It  was  scarcely  possible  to  conceive 
anything  more  to  the  dishonor  of  the  chair  of  the 
Apostle,  or,  indeed,  of  the  whole  of  Christendom. 
What  mockery  must  not  this  story  excite  among  the 
Mohammedans ! 

As  early  as  the  close  of  the  thirteenth,  or  beginning 

855),  and  Nicolas  I.  in  859  (instead  of  858).  [B(-ncdict  III.  died 
early  in  858 — .\piil  Tth  ;  so  that  the  diffcroncc  between  that  and  tho 
end  of  850  would  not  be  far  short  of  two  years.] 

1  Notices  el  Entrails  vi.,  82. 

2  Monum.  Hist,  Patriie,  i'cri^torcsj  ill.,  1524. 


POPE  JOAN.  31 

of  the  fourteenth  century,  Geoffroi  de  Courlon  in- 
troduces the  story  with  the  heading  Dcccptio  Ecclesics 
Roina7i(B. 

Macrlant^  says  sorrowfully  : — 

"  Alse  die  paves  Leo  was  doot — 
Ghesciede  der  Kerken  grote  scame." 

"Johanne  la  Papcsse,"  says 2  Jean  le  Maire,  in  the 
year  15 11,  "fist  un  grand  esclandre  a  la  Papalit^." 

All  state  that  since  that  time  the  popes  always 
avoid  that  street,  so  as  not  to  look  upon  the  scene  of 
the  scandal. 

Now,  when  we  consider  that,  according  to  the 
declaration  of  the  Dominican  Tolomco  of  Lucca,  down 
to  the  year  13 12,  the  story  was  extant  nowhere, 
except  in  certain  copies  of  Martinus  Polonus  ;  that 
already  innumerable  lists  of  the  popes,  in  their 
chronological  order,  were  in  existence,  in  none  of 
which  was  there  any  trace  of  the  female  pope  to  be 
found, — the  eagerness,  which  suddenly  meets  us  at 
tlie  close  of  the  thirteenth  century,  to  make  the  fable 

1  ["  Als  der  Papst  Leo  war  todt — 

Gi'schah  der  Kirthe  grosse  Schamc — " 

After  Pope  Leo  was  dead 

A  great  scandal  rose  in  the  clmrch.] 

2  In  the  Traite  de  la  Diference  det  Schisiiiea  et  det  Concilei   de 
V  Eg  Use,  part  iii.,  f.  2. 


32  POPE  JOAN. 

pass  muster  as  history,  and  to  smuggle  it  into  the 
manuscripts,  is  certainly  very  astonishing.  The  author 
of  the  Histoire  Lit.  dc  France  has  good  reason  for 
saying,  "  Nous^  ne  saurions  nous  exphquer  comment  il 
"  se  fait  que  ce  soit  prdcisement  dans  les  rangs  de 
"  cctte  fidele  miHce  du  saint-siege  que  se  rencontrent 
"  les  propagateurs  les  plus  nalfs,  et  peut-etre  les  inven- 
"  teurs,  d'une  histoire  si  injurieuse  k  la  papaute." 
Undoubtedly  the  thing  emanated  principally  from 
those  otherwise  most  devoted  servants  of  the  Roman 
See,  the  Dominicans^  and  the  Minorites.  It  was 
certainly  they,  especially  the  former  of  the  two,  who 
were  the  first  to  multiply  the  copies  of  Martinus 
Polonus  to  such  an  extent,  and  thus  spread  the  fable 
everywhere.  The  time  at  which  this  took  place 
meanwhile  solves  the  enigma.  It  was  in  the  reign  of 
Boniface  VIII.,  who  was  not  favourably  disposed  to 

1  xxi.,  p.  10. 

2  [A  serious  rupture  between  Rome  and  the  friars  took  place 
nndt^r  Innoccut  IV.  The  University  of  Paris,  alarmed  at  the  liold 
which  tlic  monks  were  getting,  especially  on  the  professorship, 
decreed  that  no  religious  order  should  hold  more  than  one  of  the 
theological  chairs.  The  Dominicans  appealed  to  the  pope.  Inno- 
cent decided  against  them,  and  within  a  few  days  died.  His  deatli 
Avas  o])enly  attributed  to  their  prayers — "  quia  impossible  erat 
"multorum  i)rcceM  non  audiri."  Hence  the  well-known  saying, 
"  From  the  litiinies  of  the  friars,  good  Lord,  deliver  us."J 


POPE  JOAN.  33 

the  two  orders,  and  whose  whole  poh'cy^  displeased 
them.  We  see  this  in  the  unfavourable  judgments 
which  the  Dominican  historians  formed  respecting 
him,  and  in  the  attitude  which  they  assumed  at  the 
outbreak  of  the  strife  between  him  and  Philip  the 
Fair.  VVe  notice  that  from  this  time,  which  was  in 
general  a  crisis  for  the  waning  power  of  the  popes, 
historians  among  the  monastic  orders  mention  and 
describe  with  a  sort  of  relish  scandals  in  the  history 
of  the  popes. 

In  the  fifteenth  century  scarcely  a  doubt  is  sug- 
gested. Quite  at  the  beginning  of  the  century  the 
bust  of  Pope  Joan  was  placed  in  the  cathedral  at 
Sienna  along  with  the  busts  of  the  other  popes,  and 
no  one  took  offence  at  it.  The  church  of  Sienna  in 
the  time  that  followed  gave  three  popes  to  the  Roman 

1  [This  treatment  of  the  English  Francisiftns  made  this  not  un- 
natural. The  Franciscans,  iu  direct  contradiction  to  their  vow  of 
mendicancy,  had  gradually  become  very  wealthy.  The  pope  alone 
could  free  them  from  their  rule.  The  English  Minorites  offered  to 
deposit  forty  thousand  ducats  with  certain  bankers,  as  the  price  of 
permission  to  hold  property.  Boniface  played  with  the  monks  till 
the  money  was  paid,  then  absolved  the  bankers  from  their  obliga- 
tion to  pay  back  money  which  memlicants  ought  never  to  have 
owned,  and  appropriated  it  as  "res  nullius"  to  his  own  uses,  lie 
thus  made  implacable  enemies  of  the  most  i>opular  and  intidlectual 
order  iu  Europe.  When  Philip  appealed  severally  to  ail  the 
monastic  orders  in  France,  all  the  Franciscans,  and  with  them  the 
Dominicans,  Hospitallers,  and  Templars,  took  their  stand  by  him 
against  the  pope.] 


34  POPE  JOAN. 

See, — Pius  II.,  Pius  III.,  and  Marcellus  II.  Not  one 
of  them  ever  thought  of  having  the  scandal  removed. 
It  was  not  till  two  centuries  later,  that,  at  the  pressing 
demand  of  pope  Clement  VIII,,  1 592-1605,  Joan  was 
metamorphosed  into  pope  Zacharlas.  ^  When  Huss  at 
the  council  of  Constance  supported  2  his  doctrine  by 
appealing  to  the  case  of  Agnes,  who  became  Pope 
Joan,  he  met  with  no  contradiction  from  either  side. 
Even  the  Chancellor  Gerson  himself  turned  to  account 
the  circumstance  of  the  woman-pope  as  a  proof 
that  the  Church  could  err^  in  matters  of  fact.  On 
the  other  hand  the  Minorite  Johann  de  Rocha,  in  a 
treatise  written  at  the  Council  of  Constance,  uses  the 
case  of  Johannes  Maguntinus  to  show  how  dangerous 
it  is  to  make  the  duty  of  obedience  to  the  Church 
depend  upon  the  personal  character  of  the  ^jope.  '* 

1  Lf'quicn,  Oriens  Christianus,  iii.,  392. 

2  That  is  to  say,  he  tried  tx)  prove  that  the  Church  rould  pijt  on 
very  well  for  a  long  time  without  any  pope  at  all,  beeausc  during 
the  wliole  reign  of  Agnes,  namely,  two  years  and  a  half,  it  had  had 
no  real  pope. — L'Erifant,  llisloire  du  Concile  de  Con.itancp,  ii.,  334. 
In  his  work  Ve  Ecclesia  also,  Huss  comes  back  with  delight  to  the 
wonian-popc,  whose  name  was  Agnes,  and  who  was  called  Johannes 
Anglicus.  She  is  to  him  a  striking  proof  that  the  Roman  Church 
has  in  no  way  remained  spotless:  "Quomodo  ergo  ilia  Romana 
"Ecclesia,  ilia  Agnes,  .Johannes  Papa  cum  collcgio  semper  immacu- 
"lata  i)ermansil,  (jui  peperit  ?" 

3  In  the  si)eech  which  he  made  at  Tarascon  before  Benedict  XIII. 
in  the  yc^ar  1403.     Opera,  ed.  Dupin,  ii.,  71. 

4  In  Dupin's  edition  of  the  writings  of  Gerson,  v.  456. 


POPE  JOAN.  35 

Heinrlch  Korncr,  a  Dominican  of  Lubeck,  1402  to 
1437,  not  only  himself  received  the  story  about  the 
woman-pope  in  its  usual  form  into  his  chronicle,  but 
stated  in  addition  that  his  predecessor,  the  Dominican 
Henry  of  Herford  (about  1350),  whom  he  had  often 
copied,  had  purposely  concealed  the  circumstance,  in 
order  that  the  laity  might  not  be  scandalised  by 
reading  that  such  an  error  had  taken  place  in  the 
Church,  which  assuredly,  as  the  clergy  taught,  was 
guided  by  the  Holy  Spirit.  ^ 

The  matter  was  now  generally  set  f',)rth  as  an 
indubitable  fact,  and  the  scholastic  theologians  en- 
deavoured to  accommodate  themselves  to  it,  and  to 
arrange  their  church  system  and  the  position  of  the 
popes  in  the  Church  in  accordance  with  it.  yEneas 
Sylvius,  afterwards  pope  Pius  H.,  had  however  replied 
to  the  Taborites,  that  the  story  was  nevertheless  not 
certain.  But  his  contemporary,  the  great  upholder  of 
papal  despotism,  cardinal  Torrecrcmata,  2  accepts  it 
as  notorious,  that  a  woman  was  once  regarded  by  all 
Catholics  as  pope,  and  thence  draws  the  following 
conclusion  :  that,  whereas  God  had  allowed  this  to 

1  Ap.  Eccard.,  ii.,  442 

2  "  Qmiin  ergo  constot  quod  ftliqu.mdo  mulier  a  ctmctis  Cntholicis 
"  putabatur  Papa,  non  est  incredibile  quod  aliquando  bc-cretitus 
"  babeatur  pro  Papa,  licet  voius  Papa  uoa  sit.'  — Summa,  de  Ecclesia, 
edit.  Vcuot.,  p.  3i}4. 


36  POPE  JOAN. 

happen,  without  the  whole  constitution  of  the  Church 
being  thrown  into  confusion,  so  it  might  also  come  to 
pass,  that  a  heretic  or  an  infidel  should  be  recog- 
nised as  pope  ;  and,  in  comparison  with  the  fact  of  a 
female  pope,  that  would  be  the  smaller  difficulty  of 
the  two. 

St.  Antoninus,  belonging,  like  Torrecremata,  to  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  and  like  him  a 
Dominican,  ^  avails  himself  of  the  Apostle's  words 
respecting  the  inscrutability  of  the  divine  counsels 
in  connection  with  the  supposed  fact  of  a  female 
pope,  and  declares  that  the  Church  was  even  then 
not  without  a  Flead,  namely  Christ,  but  that  bishops 
and  priests  ordained  by  the  woman  must  certainly  be 
re-ordained. 

The  Dominican  order,  whose  members  chiefly 
contributed  to  spread  the  fable  everywhere,  possessed 
in  their  strict  organization  and  their  numerous  li- 
braries the  means  of  discovering  the  truth.  The 
General  of  the  order  had  merely  to  command  that 
the  copies  of  Martinus  Polonus,  and  the  more  ancient 
lists  of  the  popes,  of  which  there  were  quantities  in 
existence  in  the  monasteries  of  the  order,  should  once 
for  all  be  examined  and  compared  together.  But 
people  preferred  to  believe  what  was  most  incredible 

1  Summa  Hist.,  lib.  16,  p.  2,  c.  1,  §  7. 


POPE  JOAN.  37 

and    most   monstrous.     Not   one    of  these   men,   of 

course,  had  ever  seen,  or  heard,  that  a  woman  had 

for  years   been    pubHc  teacher,  priest,    and  bishop, 

without  being  detected,  or  that  the  birth  of  a  child 

had  ever  taken  place  in  the  public  street.     But  that 

in  Rome  these  two  things  once  took  place  together, 

in  order  to  disgrace  the  papal  dignity — this  people 

believed  with  readiness. 

Martin  le  Franc,  provost  of  Lausanne,  about  1450, 

and  secretary  to  the  popes  Felix  V.  and  Nicholas  V., 

in  his  great  French  poem,  Le  ChampioJi  dcs  Davies, 

celebrated  Pope  Joan  at  length.     First  v.e  have  his 

astonishment,  that  such  a  thing  should  have  been 

permitted  to  take  place. 

*'  Comment  endura  Dicu,  comment 
Que  femme  ribaulde  et  prestrcs.se 
Eut  I'Eglise  en  gouvernement  ?" 

It  would  have  been  no  wonder  had  God  come  down 

to  judgment,  when  a  woman  ruled  the  world.  But  now 

the  defender  steps  forward  and  makes  apology — 

"  Or  laissons  les  pcches,  disans, 
Qu'elle  etoit  clergesse  lettrce, 
Quand  devant  les  plus  sufiisants 
De  Rome  eut  Tissue  et  I'eritree. 
Encore  te  pcut  etrc  montrce 
Mainte  Preface  que  dicta, 
Bien  et  saintement  accoustrce 
Oil  en  la  foy  point  n'hesita."! 

1  Ap.  Oudin,  Comm,  de  Scr.  £ccl.,  iii.  24C6. 
4 


38  POPE  JOAN. 

She  had,  therefore,  composed  many  quite  orthodox 
prefaces  for  the  mass. 

It  was  not  until  the  second  half  of  the  fifteenth 
century  that  the  story  came  into  the  hands  of  the 
Greeks.  Welcome  as  the  occurrence  of  such  a  thing 
would  have  been  to  a  Cerularius  and  like-minded  op- 
ponents of  the  papal  chair  in  Constantinople,  no  one 
had  as  yet  mentioned  it,  until  Chalcocondylas,  in  the 
history  of  his  time,  in  which  he  describes  the  mode  of 
electing  a  pope,  mentions  also  the  fiction  of  an 
examination  as  to  sex,  and  apropos  of  that  relates 
the  catastrophe  of  Pope  Joan ;  an  occurrence  which, 
as  he  remarks,  could  only  have  taken  place  in  the 
West,  where  the  clergy  do  not  allow  their  beard 
to  grow.i  It  is  in  him  that  we  get  the  outrageous 
feature  added  to  the  story,  that  the  child  was  born 
just  as  the  woman  was  celebrating  High  Mass,  and 
was  seen  by  the  assembled  congregation.  ^ 

In  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries,  says  the 
Roman  writer  Cancellieri,  the  romance  about  Pope 

1  De  Rebus  Turcieis,  cd.  Bckker,  Bonn,  1843,  p.  303. 

2  'i2f  f  Jf  T//V  dvaimi  (kPlketo^  yewijaai  re  to  naidiov  Kara  tt/v  Ova'tav  Kal 
odOf/vac  vnb  tov  ?mov. 

The  cleric,  who  examines  the  sex  of  the  newly-elected,  cries  out 
with  a  loud  voice :  ';/(/"/''  W'v  torlv  6  dtmrurr/r,  I.  c,  p.  303.  Bui- 
laam,  who  had  mentioned  the  fablo  as  early  as  the  fourteenth 
century,  lived  in  Italy. 


POPE  JOAN.  39 

Joan  circulated  widely  in  all  chronicles  which  were 
written  and  copied  in  Italy,  and  even  under  the  very 
eyes  of  Rome.  ^  Thus  it  appears  in  print  in  Rico- 
baldo's  Italian  chronicle  of  the  popes,  which  Filippo 
de  Lignamine  dedicated  to  pope  Sixtus  IV.  in  14;  4- 
So  also  in  the  history  of  the  popes  by  Hie  Venetian 
priest  Stella.  2  For  a  long  time,  and  even  as  late  as 
1548  and  1550,  it  found  a  place  in  numerous  Roman 
editions  of  the  Mirabilia  Urbis  Ronicp,  ^  which  was  a 
sort  of  guide  for  pilgrims  and  strangers. 

Felix  Hemmerlin,  Trithemius,  Nauclerus,  Albert 
Krantz,  Coccius  Sabellicus,  Raphael  of  Voltcrra,  Joh. 
Fr.  Pico  di  Mirandola,  the  Augustine  Foresti  of 
Bergamo,  Cardinal  Domenico  Jacobazzi,  Hadrian  of 
Utrecht,  afterwards  pope  Hadrian  VI., — Germans, 
French,  Italians,  Spaniards,  all  appeal  to  the  story, 
and  interweave  it  with  their  theological  disquisitions; 
or,  like  Heinrich  Cornelius  Agrippa,  rejoice  that  the 
tenets  of  the   canonists   about  the  inerrancy  of  the 

1  Storia  de'  solenni possensi.     Home,  1802,  p.  233. 

2  Vita  Paparum,  R.  Basil,  1507,  f.  E.  2. 

3  Other  old  editions  of  tliis  strangers'  guide  to  Rome  have  tho 
title — Indulgentix  Ecclesiarum  Urbis  Romx.  The  circumstance  about 
the  woman-pope  is  found  in  all  of  tlicm  ;  and  for  well-nigh  eighty 
jtars  no  one  in  Rome  ever  thought  of  having  the  scandal  expurga- 
ted from  a  work,  which  was  constiintly  reprinted,  and  was  put  into 
the  hands  of  every  new-comer.  [A  reprint  has  lately  been  publish- 
ed at  Berlin,  1869,  edited  by  Parthey.J 


40  POPE  JOAN. 

Church  had  come  to  such  glaring  shame  in  the 
deception  of  the  woman-pope,  and  that  this  woman, 
in  the  two  years  and  a  half  of  her  reign,  had  ordained 
priests  and  bishops,  administered  sacraments,  and 
performed  all  the  other  functions  of  a  pope ;  and  that 
all  this  had,  nevertheless,  remained  as  valid  'i  the 
Church.  Even  John,  Bishop  of  Chiemsee,  introduces 
Agnes  and  her  catastrophe  as  a  proof  that  the 
popes  were  sometimes  under  the  influence  of  evil 
spirits.  1  Platina,  who  thought  the  story  rather  sus- 
picious, nevertheless  would  not  omit  it  from  his 
history  of  the  popes  (about  1460),  because  nearly 
every  one  maintained  its  truth.  2  Aventin  in  Ger- 
many, and  Onufrio  Panvinio  in  Italy,  were  the  first 
to  shake  the  general  infatuation.  But  still  in  the 
year  1575  the  Minorite  Rioche,  in  his  chronicle, 
opposes  the  certainty  of  the  collected  Church  to  the 
hesitating  statements  of  Platina  and  Carranza.  ^ 

In  order  to  arrive  at  the  causes  of  the  origin  and 
development  of  the  myth,  let  us  now  proceed  to 
dissect  it. 

Originally  the  woman-pope  was  nameless.  The 
first   accounts  of  her,  in  Stephen  dc  Bourbon,  and 

1  Onus  Ecclesiie,  1531,  cap.  19,  §  4. 

2  "  Ne  obstinate  niraium  et  pertinacitcr  omisisse  vidcar,  quod  fo^ 
onines  affirmant." 

3  Chroni(iue.     Paris,  157G,  f.  230. 


POPE  JOAN.  41 

in  the  Compilatio  Chronologica  in  Pistorlus'  collection, 
know  nothing  as  yet  of  a  Joan.  In  the  latter 
authority  we  read  :  "  fuit  et  alius  pseudo  papa,  cujus 
"  nomen  et  anni  ignorantur,  nam  mulier  erat."  Her 
oivn  name  was  not  discovered  till  somewhat  late — 
about  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century.  She  was 
called  Agnes,  under  which  name  she  was  a  very  im- 
portant and  useful  personage,  especially  with  John 
Huss  ;  or  Gilberta,  ^  as  others  would  have  it.  For  the 
pope  a  name  was  found  at  an  early  stage  ;  people  took 
the  most  common  one — ^John.  There  had  already 
been  seven  of  this  name  before  855,  and  in  the  period 
during  which  the  myth  was  spreading,  the  number 
reached  one  and  twenty. 

Much  the  same  tljing  happened  as  to  the  time  at 
which  she  was  supposed  to  have  lived.  The  myth 
while  still  in  its  popular  form  of  course  did  not  touch 
upon  this  question.  But  the  first  authority  who 
relates  it  at  once  gives  it  a  date  also.  The  event,  says 
Stephen  de  Bourbon,  took  place  about  the  year  iioo. 
He  places  it  therefore  (and  this  is  very  remarkable) 
at  the  very  time  in  which  we  have  the  first  mention  of 
the  use  of  the  pierced  chair  at  the  enthronement 
of  the  new  pope.     How  people  in  general  came  after- 

2  [Besides  Agnes,  Gilberta,  or  Gerbcrta  and  Joanna,  she  is  also 
called,  in  various  authors  Margaret,  Isabel,  Dorothy,  aud  Jutta  ] 


42  POPE  JOAN. 

wards  to  assign  the  year  855  as  her  date,  has  been 
already  explained. 

Stephen  de  Bourbon  knows  nothing  up  to  his  time 
of  England,  Mayence,  or  Athens.  The  woman  is  as 
yet  no  great  scholar  or  public  teacher,  but  only  a 
clever  scribe  or  secretary  (artem  notandi  edocta), 
who  thus  becomes  the  notary  of  the  Curia,  then 
cardinal,  and  then  pope.  A  century  later,  in  Amal- 
ricus  Augerii  1  all  this  is  fantastically  enlarged  upon 
and  coloured.  At  Athens  she  becomes  by  careful 
study  a  very  subtle  reason  or.  While  there  she  hears 
of  the  condition  and  fame  of  the  city  of  Rome,  goes 
thither  and  becomes,  not  a  notary,  as  Stephen  says, 
but  a  professor,  2  attracts  many  and  noble  pupils, 
hves  at  the  same  time  in  the  greatest  honour,  is 
celebrated  everywhere  for  her  mode  of  life  no  less 
than  for  her  learning,  and  hence  is  unanimously 
elected  pope.  She  continued  some  time  longer  in 
her  honourable  and  pious  mode  of  life ;  but  later  on, 
too   much   good    living    made   her  voluptuous,   she 

1  Ap.  Eccard,  ii.,  1G07. 

2  Even  great  teachers,  says  Jakob  von  KonigsTiofen  (Chronicle,  p. 
179),  were  eager  to  become  her  pupils,  for  she  had  the  chief  of  the 
schools  in  Home,  The  papal  secretary,  Dietrich  von  Niem  (about 
A.D.  1413),  professes  to  give  the  very  school  in  which  she  taught, 
viz.,  that  of  the  Greeks,  in  which  St.  Augustine  also  taught. 


POPE  JOAN.  43 

yielded  to  the  temptations  of  the  Evil  One,  and  was 
seduced  by  one  of  her  confidants. 

Particularly  astonishing  is  the  disagreement  as  to  the 
way  in  which  the  catastrophe  took  place.  Three  or 
four  versions  of  it  exist.  According  to  the  first,  as  we 
find  it  in  Stephen  de  Bourbon,  it  appears  that  she 
was  with  child  at  the  time  of  her  election  to  the 
papacy,  and  the  "denouement  took  place  during  the 
procession  as  she  was  going  up  to  the  Latcran 
palace.  ^  The  Roman  tribunal  condemned  her  at 
once  to  be  tied  by  the  feet  to  the  feet  of  a  horse,  and 
dragged  out  of  the  city,  whereupon  the  populace 
stoned  her  to  death.  In  this  version  of  the  story, 
however,  Stephen  stands  quite  alone.  The  usual 
narrative,  as  it  has  passed  from  the  interpolated 
Martinus  Polonus  into  later  authors,  makes  her,  after 
a  quiet  reign  of  more  than  two  years,  give  birth  to  a 
child  in  the  street  during  a  procession,  die  at  once, 
and  forthwith  be  buried  on  the  very  spot.  Boccaccio 
is  quite  different  from  this  again.  According  to  him 
all  takes  place  tolerably  quietly ;  there  is  no  death, 
the  enthroned  priestess  merely  sheds  a  few  tears,  and 
then  retires  into  private  life.     "  Ex  apice  pontificatus 

1  "  Quum  ascenderct,"  i.e.,  palatiiim,  as  we  have  it  in  the  dcsorip- 
tion  of  the  coronation  of  Paschal  II.; — "  asccndcn.squo  palatiiim." 
Ap.  ilurator.  55.  llal.  iii.,  i.  354. 


44  POPE  JOAN, 

dejecta  se  in  misellam  evasisse  mulierculam  quere- 
batur."  And  again  :  "  A  patribus  in  tenebras 
exteriores  abjecta  cum  fletu  misella  abiit."  ^ 

The  attitude  which  Boccaccio  assumed  with  regard 
to  the  episode  of  the  female  pope,  which  was  just  the 
kind  of  thing  to  please  a  man  of  his  turn  of  mind,  is 
particularly  remarkable.  In  his  Zibaldone,  which  he 
wrote  about  the  year  1350,  he  included  a  short 
chronicle  of  the  popes,  which  according  to  his  own 
confession,  was  entirely  borrowed  from  the  Chronica 
Martiniana.  In  this  the  female  pope  is  not  mentioned  ; 
without  doubt  because  he  did  not  find  her  in  his 
copy  of  Martinus  Polonus.  On  the  other  hand,  he 
has  inserted  her  in  two  later  writings,  2  De  casibus 
znyorum  et  fcmmariim  illustriiun,  and  De  imdicribus 
Claris,  and  has  pictured  the  whole  with  the  enjoy- 
ment which  was  to  be  expected  from  the  author 
of  the  Decamerone.  His  narrative,  however,  differs 
essentially    from    the    usual    version    according    to 

1  In  the  Fragmentum  Uiit.  Autoris  Incerti  in  Urstis.  P.  ii.,  p.  82, 
•which  says  that  King  Theodoric  killed  "  Johanna  Papa"  at  Romo 
alon^'  with  Bocthius  and  Symuuichus,  Johanna  is  merely  a  mistake 
of  Homo  copyist  for  Johanne.  [No  version  of  the  myth  of  Pope  Joan 
plac(;s  her  as  early  as  this — 524,  525.  John  I.  was  pope  precisely  at 
this  period  523  to  52G  ] 

2  To  speak  more  exactly,  he  has  related  the  story  twice  over  in 
the  same  work,  for  the  two  writings  mentioned  really  make  up  only 
ono  work. 


POPE  JOAN.  45 

Marti'nus ;  and  seeing  that  it  agrees  with  no  other 
known  version,  it  would  appear  that  Boccaccio  has 
taken  it  directly  from  popular  tradition  (where  it 
would  naturally  assume  very  various  forms),  and 
worked  it  up.  He  knows  the  length  of  her  pontificate 
with  the  greatest  exactitude :  two  years,  seven  months, 
and  a  day  or  two.  Her  original  name  he  does  not 
know  :  "  Quod  proprium  fuerit  nomen  vix  cognitum 
"  est.     Esto  sunt,  qui  dicant  fuisse  Gilibertam." 

These  fourteenth  century  witnesses  are  of  no  very 
great  importance,  for  they  one  and  all  of  them  merely 
copied  the  interpolated  passage  in  Martinus  Polonus, 
often  with  scarcely  the  alteration  of  a  word.  On 
the  other  hand  the  recently  published  Eulogiiivi 
Historiarinn  of  a  monk  of  Malmcsbury,  of  the  year 
1366,  has  a  peculiar  form  of  the  story  to  be  found 
nowhere  else,  although  the  author  in  other  places 
borrows  freely  from  Martinus  Polonus.  The  girl 
is  born  in  Mayence,  and  sent  by  her  parents  to  male 
teachers  to  receive  instruction  in  the  sciences.  With 
one  of  these,  who  was  a  very  learned  man,  she  falls  in 
love,  and  goes  with  him  in  man's  attire  to  Rome. 
Here,  because  she  surpassed  every  one  in  knowledge, 
she  was  made  cardinal  by  pope  Leo.  When,  as  pope, 
she  gives  birth  to  a  child  during  the  procession,  she 
is  merely  deposed.     This  version,   therefore,  would 


46  POPE  JOAN. 

come  nearest  to  the  description  given  by  Boccaccio. 
It  knows  nothing  of  the  journey  to  Athens.  ^ 

The  catastrophe  appears  somewhat  further  spun 
out  in  a  manuscript  chronicle  of  the  abbots  of 
Kcmpten.  There  we  are  told  that  "  the  Evil  Spirit 
"  came  to  this  Pope  John,  who  was  a  woman,  and 
"  afterwards  was  with  child,  and  said,  '  Thou  pope, 
"  *  who  wouldest  be  a  Father  with  the  other  Fathers 
"  '  here,  thou  shalt  show  publicly  when  thou  bringcst 
"  '  forth  that  thou  art  a  woman-pope  ;  therefore  will  I 
"  *  take  thee  body  and  soul  to  myself  and  to  my  coni- 
"  '  pany.'  "  2 

Another  less  severe  and  uncompromising  finale 
was  however  attempted.  By  a  revelation  or  an  angel 
she  was  allowed  to  choose,  whether  she  would  suftcr 
shame  on  earth  or  eternal  damnation  hereafter.  She 
chose  the  former,  and  the  birth  of  her  child  and  her 
own  death  in  the  open  street  was  the  consequence.  ^ 

The  story  of  the  papess  once  believed,  many  other 
fables  attached  themselves  to  it.  It  was  through  the 
special  aid  of  the  devil,  we  are  told,  that  she  rose  to 

1  Fulogium,  Chronicon  ab  orbe  condito  usque  ad  annum  13GG  ; 
C(lit<;d  by  Frank  Scott  Ilaydon,     Lond.  1853,  t.  I. 

2  Ap.  Wolf,  Lection.  Memorab.,  cd.  1G71,  p.  177. 

.'{  So  in  tho  l/rlns  Jiimre  Mirabilia,  a  work  frcquontly  printoa 
in  Koine  durinp^  tlie  fiftui'iitli  and  sixteenth  centuries.  'J'lienin  lleni- 
merliu,    pp.  15y7,  f.  DU,  and  iu  a  German  chrouiclo  of  C'-olognc. 


POPE  yOAN.  47 

the  dignity  of  pope,  and  thereupon  wrote  a  book 
on  necromancy.  ^  Formerly  there  was  a  greater 
number  of  Prefaces  in  the  missal.  The  reduction  in 
number  which  took  place  afterwards  with  regard 
to  those  whose  author  and  purpose  were  unknown, 
was  explained  by  the  supposition,  that  Pope  Joan 
had  composed  those  which  were  struck  out.  ^ 

Now,  how  is  the  first  origin  of  the  myth  to  be 
explained  }  Four  circumstances  have  contributed  to 
the  production  and  elaboration  of  the  fable  : — i.  The 
use  of  a  pierced  seat  at  the  institution  of  a  newly 
elected  pope.  2.  A  stone  with  an  inscription  on  it, 
which  people  supposed  to  be  a  tombstone.  3.  A 
statue  found  on  the  same  spot,  in  long  robes,  which 
were  supposed  to  be  those  of  a  woman.  4.  The 
custom  of  making  a  circuit  in  processions,  whereby  a 
street  wiiich  was  directly  in  the  way  was  avoided. 

In  one  street  in  Rome  stood  two  objects,  which 
were  very  naturally  supposed  to  be  connected, — a 
statue  with  the  figure  of  a  child  or  small  boy,  and  a 
monum^ental  stone  with  an  inscription.     In  addition 

1  Tiraqncll,  de  Leg.  3fatrim,ed.  Basil.,  inoi,  p.  298. 

2  Thus,  in  un  Oxford  m.inuscri|it  of  Martiiius  Polonus  we  read  : — 
"  ilic  (Johannes  Anglicus)  primus  post  Ambrosium  niultas  prc- 
"  fjvtiont's  missirum  dioitnr  composiiisst-,  qiiaj  modo  onines  sunt 
"  inUrdictse."  Ap.  Mansium,  Johanui  I'ajjissa  litslit.,  p.  J9.  So 
also  tlie  abovc-mcutionod  iiartin  Ic  Frauc. 


48  POPE  JOAN, 

to  this  came  the  circumstance,  that  solemn  and  state 
processions  made  a  circuit  round  this  street.  The 
statue  is  said  to  have  had  masculine  rather  than 
feminine  features  ;  but  certain  information  on  this 
point  is  wanting,  for  Sixtus  V.  had  it  removed.  The 
figure  carried  a  palm-branch,  and  was  supposed  to 
represent  a  priest  with  a  serving  boy,  or  some  heathen 
divinity.  But  the  long  robes  and  the  addition  of  the 
figure  of  the  boy  to  the  group,  created  a  notion 
among  the  people  that  it  was  a  mother  with  her  child. 
The  inscription  was  then  made  use  of  to  explain  the 
statue,  and  the  statue  to  explain  the  inscription,  the 
pierced  chair  and  the  avoiding  of  the  street  served  to 
confirm  the  explanation.  This  piece  of  sculpture 
was  not  (as  has  been  maintained)  first  mentioned  by 
Dietrich  von  Niem  in  the  fifteenth  century  ;  but 
Mairlant  says,  as  early  as  1283,  i,  e.,  at  the  time  of 
the  first  circulation  of  the  myth  : — 

"  En  daer  leget  soe,  als  wyt  lesen 
Noch  also  up  ten  Stccn  ghchouwen, 
Dat  men  ane  daer  mag  scouwen." 

The  myth  now  sought,  and  soon  found,  further 
circumstances  with  which  to  connect  itself.  The 
enigmatical  inscription  on  a  monumental  stone  wliich 
stood  on  the  spot,  and  which  hitherto  no  one  had 
been  able  to  interpret,  became  all  at  once  clear  to  the 


POPE  JOAN.  49 

Romans.  It  referred  to  the  female  pope  and  the 
catastrophe  of  the  denouement. 

The  stone  was  set  up  by  one  of  those  priests  of 
Mithras  who  bore  the  title  "  Pater  Patrum,"  appa- 
rently as  a  memorial  of  some  specially  solemn  sacrifice  ; 
for  the  worship  of  Mithras  from  the  third  century  of 
the  Christian  era  onwards  was  a  very  favourite  one  in 
Rome  and  very  prevalent,  until  in  the  year  378  the 
worship  was  forbidden  and  the  grotto  of  Mithras 
destroyed. 

The  earliest  notice  of  the  stone  with  the  inscription, 
which  was  supposed  to  be  the  tombstone  of  the 
female  pope,  is  to  be  found  in  Stephen  de  Bour- 
bon.    According  to  him  the  inscription  ran  thus, — 

"  Parce  Pater  Patrum  papissae  prodere  partum." 

Now  without  doubt  it  did  not  stand  so  in  as  many 
words.  But  "  Pap."  or  "  Pare.  Pater  Patrum  "  followed 
by  "  P.  P.  P."  was  certainly  the  reading  ;  an  abbrevia- 
tion for  "  proj  »ria  pecunia  posuit." 

"  Pater  Pati*um"  appears  constantly  on  monuments 
as  the  title  v)f  a  priest  of  the  Mithras^  mysteries. 
In   this   case,   probably,  the  name  of  the  priest  of 

1  Conf.  Orclli,  Inscriptionum  Latinarum  Ampl.  Coll.  1848,  1933, 
2343,  2344,  2353. 


50  POPE  JOAN. 

Mithras  was  Papirius.  ^     The  remaining  letters  may 
have  become  illegible. 

The  problem  therefore  now  was  to  interpret  the 
three  "  P's." 

One  reading  was, 

*•  Parce  Pater  Patrum  papisss  prodere  partum  j"  2 
or  as  others  supposed, 

*'  Papa  Pater  Patrum  papissae  pandito  partum  ;  " 
or,  according  to  another  explanation  still  better, 
**  Papa  Pater  Patrum  peperit  papissa  papellum." 
Thus  was  the  riddle  of  the  inscription  solved,  and  the 
myth  confirmed  in  connection  with  the  statue  and  the 
pierced  chair.     The  stone  had  turned  out  to  be  the 
tombstone  of  the  unhappy  Pope  Joan.  ^ 

The  verse,  however,  especially  in  its  first  and 
second  form,  was  altogether  a  most  extraordinary 
one  for  an  epitaph.  There  must  be  something  more 
to  account  for  it,  and,  accordingly,  the  myth  was  soon 

1  For  several  inscriptions  with  the  abbreviation  P.  a  P.,  see  Orclli, 
ii.,  25. 

2  This  is  the  oldest  interpretation  as  given  hy  Stephen  dc 
r)Otirbon ;  see  Echard,  /S.  Thomx  Surnma  iuo  Avclori  Vindicata,  p. 
6G8. 

3  Hence  the  most  ancient  Avitnoss,  Ste])h('n  de  Bourbon,  says 
expressly:  "  Ubi  fiiit  morttia,  il>i  I'liit  sijnilta,  et  suiier  lapidcm 
"super  ea  positum  scrlptus  est  vursiculus,  etc.'' — Ap.  Echard.,  I  c, 
p.  5G8. 


POPE  JOAN.  51 

enlarged.  It  was  reported  that  Satan,  who  of  course 
knew  the  secret  of  the  papcss,  had  addressed  her  in 
the  words  of  the  verse  in  a  full  consistory.^  That, 
however,  did  not  seem  a  very  satisfactory  explanation  ; 
and  so  the  supposed  epitaph  was  altered  and  enlarged, 
— and  the  story  at  last  ran  thus  : — that  the  papess, 
while  exorcising  a  man  possessed  by  a  devil,  had 
asked  him  when  the  unclean  spirit  that  dwelt  in  him 
would  leave  him,  and  it  had  mockingly  answered — 

*'  Papa  Pater  Patrum  papissje  pandito  partum, 

Et  tibi  nunc  edam  (or  dicam)  de  corpore  quando  recedam."  • 

Other  instances  have  occurred  of  an  unintelligible 
inscription  being  explained  by  a  story  '  being  attached 
to  it.  Thus  the  chronicles,  since  the  time  of  Beda, 
declare  that  an  inscription  had  been  found  at  Rome 
with  the  six  letters  : — 

"R.  R.  R.  F.  F.  F." 
According  to  other  instances  of  abbreviations  in  in- 
scriptions, this  can  at  any  rate  mean — 

"  Ruderibus  rejecris  Rufus  Festus  fieri  fecit." 

1  So  the  Chronica  S.  JEgidii,  ap.  Leibnitz  SS.  Bniusvic,  iii.,  E9». 
The  Chronicon  of  Engelhusins  (L<'il)nitz,  ii.,  10G5)  makis  the  ivil 
spirit  in  the  air  shout  out  the  verse  at  the  birth  of  the  child  during 
the  procession. 

2  So,  for  instance,  the  Chronicle  of  Hermannus  Gyjras,  p.  94. 

3  [Compare  the  famou.s  verse  about  Pope  Sylvester  II.  — 
"  Scandit  "ab  R.  Gerbertus  in  B,  post  papa  viget  R,"  p.  268.] 


52  POPE  JOAN. 

But  people  constructed  out  of  it  the  prophecy  of  an 
ancient  Sibyl  respecting  the  destruction  of  Rome, 
and  interpreted — 

"  Roma  Ruet  Romuli  Ferro  Flammaque  Fameque." 

While  the  inscription  on  the  stone  occupied  more 
especially  the  clergy  and  the  more  educated  among 
the  laity,  and  stimulated  them  to  attempt  explana- 
tions of  it,  the  imaginative  powers  of  the  populace 
were  chiefly  excited  by  the  seat  which  stood  in  a 
public  place,  and  was  always  to  be  seen  by  every  one, 
on  which  every  newly-elcctcd  pope,  in  accordance 
with  traditional  custom,  took  his  seat. 

From  the  time  of  Paschal  II.  in  the  year  1099,  we 
find  mention  of  the  custom  that,  at  the  solemn 
procession  to  the  Lateran  palace,  the  new  pope  should 
sit  down  on  two  ancient  pierced  scats  made  of  stone. 
They  were  called  "  porphy  ret  ices,"  because  the  stone 
of  which  they  were  made  was  of  a  bright  red  kind. 
They  dated  from  the  times  of  ancient  Rome,  and  had 
formerly,  it  appears,  stood  in  one  of  the  public  baths  ; 
and  had  thence  come  into  the  oratory  of  S.  Sylvester 
near  the  Lateran. ^  Here  then  it  was  usual  for  the  pope 
first  to  sit  on  the  right-hand  seat,  while  a  girdle  from 
which  hung  seven  keys  and  seven  seals  was  put  round 

1  Montfaucon,  Diar.  Ital.,  p.  137. 


POPE  JOAN.  53 

him.  1  At  the  same  time  a  staff  was  placed  in  his 
hand,  which  he  then,  sitting  on  the  left-hand  seat, 
placed  along  with  the  keys  in  the  hands  of  the  prior 
of  St.  Lawrence.  Hereupon  another  ornamented  garb, 
made  after  the  pattern  of  the  Jewish  ephod,  was 
placed  on  him.  This  sitting  down  was  meant  to 
symbolise  taking  possession  ;  for  Pandulf  goes  on 
to  say  :  "  per  cetera  Palatii  loca  solis  Pontificibus 
"destinata,  jam  dominus  vel  sedens  vel  transiens 
"electionis  modum  implcvit." 

It  was  therefore  a  mere  matter  of  accident  that 
these  stone  seats  were  pierced.  They  had  been 
selected  on  account  of  their  antique  form  and  the 
beautiful  colour  of  the  stone.  Every  stranger  who 
visited  Rome  could  not  fail  to  be  struck  with  their 
unusual  shape.  That  they  had  formerly  been  in- 
tended to  be  used  in  a  bath  had  passed  out  of  every 
one's  knowledge  ;  and  the  idea  of  such  a  use  would 
be  one  of  the  last  to  occur  to  people  in  the  middle 
ages.  They  were  aware  that  the  new  pope  sat,  and 
on  this  occasion  only  in  his  whole  life,  on  this  scat, 
and  this  was  the  only  use  to  which  the  seat  was  ever 

1  "  Ascondcns  palatium,"  we  read  in  the  Roman  snb-dcacon. 
Pandulfus  Pisanus,  "  ad  duas  curulcs  devcnit.  Hie  balthco  suo 
"  cingitur,  cum  septcm  ex  eo  pendentibus  clavibus  eepttrnqiK 
"  sigillis.  Et  locatus  in  utrisquo  curiilibus  data  sibi  ferula  in 
"  manu,  etc,"— Ap.  Murator.  &S.  Hal.,  P.  iii.,  P.  i.,  p.  364. 


54  POPE  JOAN. 

put.  The  symbolical  meaning  of  the  act  and  of  the 
ceremonies  connected  with  it  was  unknown  and 
foreign  to  the  popular  mind.  It  accordingly  invented 
an  explanation  of  its  own,  just  such  a  one  as  popular 
fancy  is  wont  to  give.  The  seat  is  hollow  and  pierced, 
they  said,  because  they  wanted  to  make  sure  that  the 
pope  was  a  man.  The  further  question,  what  need 
there  was  to  make  sure  of  this,  produced  the  explana- 
tion : — because,  in  one  instance  certainly,  a  woman 
was  made  pope.  Here  at  once  a  field  was  opened 
for  the  development  of  a  myth.  The  deception,  the 
catastrophe  of  the  discovery  ;  all  that  was  forthwith 
sketched  out  in  popular  talk.  Myth  delights  in  the 
most  glaring  contrasts.  Hence  we  have  the  highest 
sacerdotal  office,  and  together  with  it  its  most  shame- 
ful prostitution  by  sudden  travail  during  a  solemn 
procession,  followed  by  childbirth  in  the  open  street. 
This  done,  the  woman-pope  has  fulfilled  her  mission. 
The  myth  accordingly  at  once  withdraws  her  from 
the  scene.  She  dies  in  childbirth  on  the  spot ;  or, 
according  to  an  older  version,  is  stoned  to  death  by 
the  enraged  populace. 

The  story  that  the  newly-elected  pope  sat  down  on 
the  pierced  scat  in  order  to  give  a  proof  of  his  sex  is 
first  found  in  the  Visions  of  the  Dominican,  Robert 


POPE  JOAN.  55 

d'Usez,*  who  died  in  Metz  in  the  year  1296.  He 
relates  that  in  the  year  1291,  while  he  was  staying  at 
Orange,  he  was  taken  in  the  spirit  to  Rome,  to  the 
Lateran  palace,  and  placed  before  the  porphyry  seat, 
*'  ubi  dicitur  probari  papa  an  sit  homo."  ^  After  him 
Jacobo  d'Agnolo  di  Scarperia  in  the  year  1405 
declares  respecting  it,  in  a  letter  to  the  celebrated 
Greek,  Emanuol  Chrysoloras,  in  which  he  describes 
the  enthronisation  of  Gregory  XII,  as  an  eye-witness, 
that  it  is  a  senseless  popular  fable.^  It  is  consequently 
not  correct  to  say,  what  has  been  frequently  main- 
tained, that  the  English  writer,  William  Brevin,*  about 
1470,  was  the  first  to  make  mention  of  the  supposed 
investigation  as  to  the  sex  of  the  pope.  ^ 

1  HUt.  Liu.  de  France,  xx.  501. 

2  Liber  trium  Virorum  et  trium  Spirit.  Fir^i/iwm,  ed.  Lcfcbrc,  Paris, 
1513,  f.  25. 

3  Juxta  hoc  (sacellum  Sylvestri)  pcmina;  snnt  fixa;  sedcs  por- 
phiretico  incisre  lapide,  in  quibus,  quo<l  perforatiE  siut,  insanam 
loquitur  vulgus  fabulam,  quod  Poutifcx  attractotur,  an  vir  sit.  Ap. 
Cancellicri,  p.  37. 

4  In  a  work  De  SepUm  Principalibus  EccUsiit  Urhit  Romx. 

5  According  to  Hcmraerlin  (^Dialog,  de  Nobil.  et  Rutticis),  tho 
investigation  was  made  by  two  of  tlie  clergy  :  "  et  dum  invenirentur 
"  illajsi  (testiculi),  clamabant  tjingentes  alta  voce  ;  testieulos  habet. 
"  Et  reclamabant  clerus  et  jwpulus  :  Deo  gratias.'  AccoVding  to 
Chalcocondylas  the  words  were  :  —  apfirfv  t/uiv  rar'iv  6  Sta-ortj^. 
[De  rebus  Turcicis,  cd.  Bekker,  Bonn.,  1843,  p  303.]  How  readily 
the  jwpular  storj'  was  believed  is  shown  bj*  Bernardino  Corio,  of 
Milan,  who  describes  in  his  historical  work  the  coronation  of  popo 


56  POPE  JOAN.      . 

Of  later  witnesses  it  is  worth  mentioning,  that  the 
Swede  Lawrence  Banck,  who  minutely  described  the 
solemnities  which  accompanied  the  elevation  of  In- 
nocent X-  to  the  papacy  [Sept.  1644],  declares,  with 
all  earnestness,  that  it  certainly  was  the  case,  that  an 
investigation  into  the  sex  of  tlie  pope  was  the  object 
of  the  ceremony.  ^  At  that  time,  howevf-r,  the  custom 
of  sitting  on  the  two  stone  seats,  along  with  several 
other  ceremonies,  had  long  since  disappeared,  namely, 
since  the  death  of  Leo  X.  And,  moreover,  Banck 
does  not  state  that  he  himself  had  seen  the  cere- 
mony, 2  but  only  that  he  had  often  seen  the  scat,  and 
by  way  of  proof  that  it  took  place,  and  with  this 
particular  object,  appeals  to  writers  of  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries.  Cancellieri,  therefore,  had 
good  reason  for  expressing  astonishment  at  the 
shamelessness  of  a  man,  who  speaks  on  other  things 
as  an  eye-witness,  and  who  had  only  to  inquire  of 

Alexander  VI.  in  the  year  1492,  when  Corio  himKelf  was  in  Homo. 
There  we  read,  "  Finalmentc  esscndo  finite  lo  solite  solemnitati  in 
Sancta  Sanctorum  et  dimesticamente  toccatogli  H  testicoli,  ritomo 
al  palaeio."  Patria  lltitoria,  P.  vii.,  fol.  Riv.  Milaiio,  1503.  In  the 
later  editions  the  passage  is  omitted.  Corio,  howeyer,  says  himself, 
that  he  was  not  in  the  church  where  it  tooli  place,  hut  was  standing 
outside. 

1  In  the  hook  Roma  TViumjoAans,  Franccker,  1645.  Cancellieri  has 
quoted  his  long  account  entire. 

2  Cancellieri,  p.  236. 


POPE  JOAN.  57 

any  educated  Roman  to  learn  that  the  custom  in 
question  had  been  given  up  for  more  than  a  hundred 
years. 

But  the  strongest  case  of  all  is  that  of  Giampctro 
Valeriano  Bolzani,  one  of  the  literary  courtiers  of  Leo 
X.,  and  loaded  with  benefices,  ^  according  to  the  im- 
moral custom  of  the  time.  This  man,  in  a  speech 
addressed  to  cardinal  Hippolytus  dei  Medici,  printed 
at  Rome  with  papal  privilege,  did  not  scruple  to 
decorate  the  fiction  about  the  investigation  into  the 
sex  of  each  newly-elected  pope  with  new  and  fabulous 
circumstances.  The  ceremony  takes  places,  he  declares, 
quite  openly  in  the  gallery  of  the  Lateran  church 
before  the  eyes  of  the  assembled  multitude,  and 
is  then  most  unnecessarily  proclaimed  by  one  of  the 
clergy  and  entered  in  the  register.  2  Thus  the  wanton 
frivolity  of  Italian  literati,  and  the  stupid  indifference 
of  ecclesiastical  dignitaries,  worked  together  to  spread 
this  delusion,  damaging  as  it  was  to  the  otherwise 
jealously  guarded  authority  of  the  papal  see,  right 
through  the  whole  mass  of  the  populace.  At  the  same 

1  For  the  long  list  of  his  benefices,  see  Marini,  Archiatri  Ponti- 
ficO;  i.,  291. 

2  Resqne  ipsa  sacri  pncconis  voce  palam  pronmlpata  in  acta  max 
refertur,  Icgitimumque  turn  demum  Pontificom  nos  habere  arhi- 
tramur,  quum  habere  ilium  quod  habere  decet  ocuiata  tide  fuerit 
contestatum. 


58  POPE  JOAN. 

time  one  could  hardly  have  a  more  striking  instance 
of  the  irresistible  power  which  a  universally-circulated 
story  exercises  over  men,  even  over  those  of  superior 
intellect.  Any  one  could  learn  without  trouble  from 
a  cardinal,  or  from  one  of  the  clergy  taking  part 
in  the  ceremony,  what  really  took  place  there.  But 
people  never  asked,  or  else  imagined  that  the  answer 
meant  no  more  than  a  refusal  to  vouch  for  the  fact. 
They  heard  this  examination  of  the  newly-elected 
pope  spoken  of  everywhere,  in  the  streets  and  in 
private  houses,  as  a  notorious  fact. 

Did,  then,  the  meaning  assigned  to  the  pierced  scat 
influence  the  explanation  of  the  inscription  and  of  the 
statue  ;  or  did,  contrariwise,  these  two  objects  give 
origin  to  the  myth  about  the  ceremonies  connected 
with  the  seat .''  That  point  it  is  now,  of  course,  out  of 
our  power  to  determine.  We  can  only  see  that  the 
explanation  of  the  three  objects  is  as  old  as  the  myth 
about  the  woman-pope. 

A  further  confirmation  of  the  whole  was  soon  found 
in  a  circumstance  of  no  importance  in  itself,  and  for 
which  a  perfectly  natural  explanation  was  ready  at 
hand.  It  was  remarked  that  the  popes  in  processions 
between  the  Lateran  and  the  Vatican  did  not  enter  a 
street  which  lay  in  the  way,  but  made  a  circuit 
through  other  streets.     The  reason  was  simply  the 


POPE  JOAN.  59 

narrowness  of  the  street.  But  in  Rome,  where  the 
papess  was  already  haunting  the  imagination  of  the 
masses,  it  was  now  discovered  that  this  was  done 
to  remind  men  how  the  woman  had  given  birth  to  a 
child  as  she  was  going  through  this  street,  and  to 
express  horror  at  the  catastrophe  which  had  taken 
place  just  at  that  spot.  In  the  first  version  of  the 
fable,  as  we  find  it  in  the  interpolated  Martinus 
Polonus,  it  is  said  :  "  creditiir  oninvio  a  qiiibusdam^ 
*'qiiod  ob  detestationem  facti  hocfaciaty  With  ^  later 
writers  the  thing  is  thoroughly  established  as  a 
notorious  fact. 

It  may  now  be  worth  while  to  show  by  a  few 
examples,  how  easily  a  popular  myth,  or  a  mythical 
explanation,  may  be  called  into  existence  by  a 
circumstance,  so  soon  as  anything  is  perceived  in  it, 
which  seems  in  the  eyes  of  the  people  to  be  astonish- 
ing, or  which  excites  their  imagination. 

The  bigamy  of  the  Count  of  Gleichcn  plays  an  im- 
portant part  in  our  literature,  and  is  still  believed  to 
be  true  by  numberless  people.     A  count  of  Glcichen 

1  The  chroniclers  copy  one  from  another  to  such  a  slavish  extent 
in  this  narrative,  that  the  incorrect  expression  of  the  interpolater, 
"Dorainns  Papa,  quum  vadit  ad  Latcranum,  eandera  viam  semper 
"  ohliquaf  (instead  of  declinat)  lias  been  retained  by  all  his  followers. 
The  avoided  street  was,  moreover,  pulled  down  by  Sixtus  V.,  on 
account  0/ its  narrowness.  [The  spot  where  the  catastrophe  was  said 
to  have  taken  place  is  between  the  Colosseum  and  St.  Clement's.] 


6o  POPE  JOAN. 

is  said  to  have  gone  to  Palestine  in  the  year  1227,  in 
company  with  the  Landgrave  of  Thuringia,  and  there 
to  have  been  captured  by  the  Saracens  and  thrown 
into  prison.  Through  tlie  daughter  of  t  le  Sultan  he 
obtained  his  liberty  ;  and  the  story  goes  that,  although 
his  wife  was  living,  he  obtained  a  dispensation  from 
pope  Gregory  IX.  in  the  year  1240  o*  1241,  and 
married  the  princess ;  and  the  three  lived  together  in 
undisturbed  peace  for  many  years  afterwards.  It  is  a 
well-known  fact  that  the  very  bed  itself  (an  unusually 
broad  one)  of  the  count  and  his  two  wives,  was  shown 
for  a  long  time  afterwards. 

This  story  is  told  for  the  first  time  in  the  year 
1584,  that  is  to  say,  three  centuries  and  a  half  later.  ^ 
But  from  that  time  onwards  it  is  related  in  numerous 
writings,  and  in  the  next  century  became  a  matter  of 
popular  belief,  so  that  henceforth  it  was  printed  in  all 
histories  of  Thuringia,  and  is  to  be  found  in  par- 
ticular in  Jovius,  Sagittarius,  Orlcariits,  I^ackenstcin. 
etc.  In  this  case,  also,  it  was  a  toDibstonc  which  gave 
occasion  to  the  story.  On  it  was  represented  a  knight 
with  two  2  female  figures,  one  of  whom  had  a  peculiar 

1  In  Dresscri  Rhelorica,  Lips.,  p.  76,  squ. 

2  It  is,  as  Placidiis  Mtitli,  of  Erfurt,  has  conjccturotl  witli  miu^h 
probability,  the  monuniuiit  of  a  count  of  Glcichcn,  who  died  in  1494, 
and  his  two  wives. 


POPE  JOAN.  6r 

head  dress  decorated  with  a  star.  No  sooner  had  the 
myth  which  fastened  on  to  this  figure  begun  to  weave 
its  web,  than  relics  and  signs  began  to  multiply.  Not 
only  was  the  bedstead  shown,  but  a  jewel  which  the 
pope  had  presented  to  the  Turkish  princess,  and 
which  she  wore  in  her  turban  ;  a  "  Turk's  road,"  was 
pointed  out,  leading  to  the  castle,  and  a  "  Turk's 
room  "  within  it.  And  not  a  word  about  all  this  until 
the  seventeenth  century.  In  earlier  times  no  one  had 
ever  heard  a  syllable  about  the  story  or  the  relics.  ^ 

Another  instance  is  afforded  by  the  Piistrich  at 
Sondershausen,  a  bronze  figure,  hollow  inside,  with 
an  opening  in  the  head.  It  was  found  in  the  year 
1550,  in  a  subterranean  chapel  of  the  castle  of  Rothen- 
burg,  near  Nordhausen,  and  was  brought  to  Son- 
dershausen in  the  year  1576,  where  it  still  exists 
in  the  cabinet  of  curiosities.  Thirty  or  forty  years 
had  scarcely  passed  before  a  legend  had  grown  up, 
which  quite  harmonised  with  a  time  immediately  suc- 
ceeding the  great  religious  contest  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, and  with  a  country  in  which  the  old  religion  was 
vanquished.  The  Piistrich  was  said  to  have  stood  in  a 
niche  in  a  pilgrimage  church,  and  by  monkish 
jugglery  to  have  been  filled  with  water,  and  made^o 
vomit  flames  of  fire,  in  order  to  terrify  the  people, 
and  induce  them  to  make  large  offerings.     Frederick 

1  Sec  Eallesche  Encyel.  Bd.  C9. 
6 


62  POPE  JOAN. 

Succus,  preacher  in  the  cathedral  of  Magdeburg, 
from  1567  to  1576,  relates  all  this,  with  many  details 
as  to  the  way  in  which  the  deception  was  managed, 
adding  the  remark,  "that  no  one  could  do  the  like 
"  now-a-days,  so  as  to  make  the  image  vomit  flames, 
"and  that  many  thought  it  was  perhaps  brought 
"  about  by  magic  and  witchcraft."  ^ 

Again,  every  one  knows  the  story  of  Archbishop 
Hatto,  of  Mayence,  who  had  a  strong  tower  built  in 
the  middle  of  the  Rhine,  in  order  to  protect  himself 
from  the  mice  ;  but  in  spite  of  that  was  devoured 
by  them.  This  event,  which  would  have  fallen  within 
the  year  970,  had  it  happened  at  all,  is  mentioned 
for  the  first  time  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  in  Siffrid's  chronicle.  Before  that  there 
is  not  a  trace  of  it.  The  Mausethurm,  or  Muus- 
thurm  2  (that  is,  Arsenal),  as  Bodmann  explains,  was 
not  built  till  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth^  century. 

1  Rabe,  Der  Pi'tstrich  zu  Sondershausen,  Berlin,  1852,  p.  58.  ITe 
shows  how  absurd  the  story  is,  although  repeated  in  the  seventeenth 
century  by  Walther,  Titus,  and  Riiser.  Even  in  the  year  1782 
Galetti,  and  in  1830  the  preacher  Quehl,  related  the  ridiculous 
story,  liabe  conjectures  with  probability  that  the  Piistrich  ia 
nothing  more  than  the  support  of  a  font.  [Others  have  supposed 
it  to  be  an  idol  of  the  Sorbic-Weuds.] 

2  Ap.  I'istor.  SS.,  Germ.,  i.,  10. 

3  [  liy  a  bishop  named  Siegfried,  together  with  the  opposite  castlo 
of  Kiin-nfcls,  as  a  watch  tower  and  toll-house  for  collecting  duties 
on  all  goixls  which  passed  up  or  down  the  river.  Maus  is  possilily 
only  another  form  of  Mauth,  toll  or  excise.  Archbishop  ilatto  died 
in  ylO.J 


POPE  JOAN.  63 

Its  name  with  the  people  slipped  from  Muusthurm  to 
Miiusethurm,  and  thus,  according  to  all  appearance, 
gave  rise  to  the  whole  story.  In  all  that  is  historically 
known  of  Hatto  II.  there  is  not  a  feature  with  which 
the  legend  could  connect  itself.  Tiie  story  of  a  prince 
or  great  man,  who  tried  to  save  himself  from  the 
pursuit  of  mice  in  a  tower  surrounded  by  water,  is  to 
be  found  in  several  other  places.  It  appears  in 
the  mountains  of  Bavaria  ;  it  occurs  among  the  myths 
of  primitive  Polish  history.  In  ^  the  latter  case  King 
Popiel,  his  wife,  and  two  sons,  are  followed  and  killed 
by  mice  in  a  tower  in  the  Goploseo,  which  to  this  day 
bears  the  name  of  Mouse-tower.  Wherever  a  tower 
on  an  island  was  to  be  seen,  the  object  of  which  could 
no  longer  be  explained,  there  sprang  up  the  story  of 
the  blood-thirsty  mice.  ^ 

1  Ropell  8  Gtichichte  Polens,  i.,  74.     [See  Appen'lix  C] 

2  Liebrccht's  explanation  in  Wolfs  ZeiUchrift  fur  deutsche 
Mythologie,  ii.,  408,  seems  to  be  errom-ous.  He  says,  that  "  at  tho 
"  root  of  ligcnda  on  this  suljjoct  lies  the  primitive  custom  of 
"  han<^ing  the  chiefs  of  the  nation  as  an  oflfcring  to  appease  tho 
"  gods,  on  the  occurrence  of  any  national  calamity,  such  as  famine 
"  through  the  ravages  of  mice,  for  instance.''  In  the  first  place, 
human  sacrifice  by  means  of  hanging  is  almost,  if  not  quite, 
unknown;  secondly,  it  is  not  usually  a  tree,  but  a  tower  on  an 
island,  to  which  the  legend  attaches  itself;  and,  lastly,  the  legend 
places  the  event,  as  in  the  case  of  Hatto,  vt  ry  much  later — qinti'  in 
Christian  times.  [Hut  may  we  not  give  up  the  hanging,  and  oven 
the  tree,  and  still  retain  the  idea  of  propitiatory  sacrifice  ?J 


64  POPE   JOAN. 

If  an  unusual  hollow  was  remarked  in  a  stone, 
a  hole  t)f  extraordinary  shape,  anything  which  the 
imagination  could  take  for  the  impress  of  a  hand  or  a 
foot,  there  at  once  a  myth  found  lodgment.  A  stone 
in  the  wall  of  a  church  at  Schlottau  in  Saxony,  which 
is  thought  to  look  like  the  face  of  a  monk  without 
ever  having  been  carved  by  the  hand  of  man,  has 
given  occasion  to  a  le^jcnd  of  attempted  sacrilege,  and 
marvellous  punishment.  ^ 

On  the  Ricsenthor  (Giant-Porch)  of  St.  Stephen's 
Cathedral  at  Vienna,  a  youth  is  introduced  in  the 
carving  of  the  upper  part,  who  appears  to  rest  a 
wounded  foot  on  the  other  knee.  A  legend  has  been 
spun  out  of  that.  The  architect,  Pilgram,  ^  is  said  to 
have  thrown  his  pupil,  Puchsprunn,  from  the  scaffold- 
ing, out  of  jealousy,  because  the  execution  of  the 
second  tower  had  been  transferred  to  the  latter  while 
still  under  Pilgram.  ^ 

The  fable  of  the  papess  belongs  to  the  local  myths 

1  Sec  Gra.!iBti's  Saffenscha'z  des  Koniffreichs  Sachsn.  Dresden,  1855. 

2  [Pilgram  was  one  of  the  later  architects,  successor  of  Jiirg 
fficllscl  about  1510.  The  church  was  founded  in  1144.  The 
Riisentlior  seems  to  behmg  to  a  period  subsc(iucnt  to  the  fire  of 
12.">8  ;  but  it  and  the  Heidentliiirme  are  almost  the  oldest  parts  of 
tlu;  present  building,  and  therefore  existed  long  before  Pilgrani's 
time.] 

3  Ilormayr.     Wien,  seine  Geschichte,  u.  s.  w.,  27,  46. 


POPE  JOAN.  6% 

of  Rome,  of  which  a  whole  cycle  existed  in  the 
Middle  Ages,  Hence  it  may  be  worth  while  to 
compare  the  birth  of  such  a  myth  with  a  Roman 
example.  The  legend  about  the  origin  of  the  house 
of  Colonna,  whose  power  and  greatness  afforded 
material  for  the  imagination  of  the  people,  is  so 
far  similar  in  its  origin  to  that  about  Pope  Joan,  as 
it  was  a  piece  of  sculpture,  viz.,  the  arms  of  the  house 
with  a  column,  which  the  legend  endeavoured  to 
explain.  Just  as  the  lozenge  of  Saxony,  the  wheel  of 
Mayence,  and  the  virgin  of  the  Osnabruck  arms, 
have  called  forth  legends  of  their  own  to  explain 
them. 

A  smith  in  Rome  notices  that  his  cow,  every  day, 
goes  of  her  own  accord  in  tlie  same  direction.  He 
follows  her,  creeps  after  her  through  a  narrow  open- 
ing, and  finds  a  meadow  with  a  building  in  it.  In 
the  building  stands  a  stone  column,  and  on  the 
top  of  it  a  brazen  vessel  full  of  money.  He  is  about 
to  take  some  of  the  money,  when  a  voice  calls  out  to 
him,  "  It  is  not  thine ;  take  three  denarii,  and 
"  thou  wilt  find  on  the  Forum  to  whom  the  money 
"  belongs."  The  smith  does  so,  and  flings  the  three 
pieces  of  money  to  three  different  parts  of  the  Forum. 
A  poor  neglected  lad  finds  them  all  three,  becomes 
the  smitli's  son-in-law,  buys  great   possessions  with 


66  POPE  JOAN. 

the  money  on  the  column,  and  so  founds  the  house  of 
Colonna.  ^ 

This,  perhaps,  is  sufficient  illustration  of  the  way  in 
which  the  legend  of  Pope  Joan  arose.  Two  circum- 
stances, however,  require  special  discussion,  the  state- 
ments that  the  woman  came  from  Mayence,  and  that 
she  had  studied  in  Athens. 

The  first  mention  that  we  find  respecting  the 
original  home  of  the  female  pope,  namely,  in  the 
passage  interpolated  into  Martinus  Polonus,  combines 
two  contradictory  statements.  It  makes  her  an 
Englishwoman,  and,  at  the  same  time,  a  native 
of  Mayence :  "  Johannes  Anglus,  natione  Mogun- 
*'  tinus."  Probably  two  stories  were  extant,  of  which 
one  made  the  impostor  come  from  the  British  Isles, 
the  other  from  Germany,  The  reason  for  one  story 
making  her  a  native  of  England  may  have  been  this. 
It  was  a  common  thing  for  Englishwomen  to  go  on 
pilgrimages  to  Rome  :  we  find  St.  Boniface  even  in 
his  day  complaining  of  the  number. of  them,  and 
their  dubious  character.  Or  it  may  have  been  that 
the  birth,  and  first  spreading  of  the  myth,  fell  just 
witliin  that  long  period  of  the  violent  struggle 
between  Innocent  III.  and  king  John,  while  luigland 

1  Fr.  Jacob!  de  AtMiiii  Chronicon  Imaginii  Mundi,  in  the  Monu- 
menta  Hist.  Palrix,  Script.^  Vol.  iii.,  p.  1G03. 


POPE  JOAN,  67 

was  accounted  in  Rome  as  the  power  which  above  all 
others  was  hostile  to  the  Roman  see.  For,  from  the 
very  beginning,  the  fictitious  event  was  considered  as 
a  deep  disgrace,  a  heavy  blow  struck  at  the  authority 
of  the  Roman  see  ;  and  the  myth  expressed  that  by 
making  a  country  which  was  considered  as  hostile  to 
Rome,  to  be  the  home  of  the  papess,  a  woman-pope. 
In  like  manner  the  mythical  king  Popiel,  who  was 
devoured  by  mice,  on  account  of  the  wrong  done  to 
his  father's  brothers,  is  represented  in  the  Polish 
myth  as  having  married  the  daujjhter  of  a  German 
prince,  in  order  that  the  guilt  of  instigating  him 
to  the  crime  might  fall  on  a  woman  of  a  foreign 
nation,  and  one  always  hostile  to  the  Sclavcs.  ^ 

It  is  not  difficult  to  explain  how  the  other  version 
of  the  story,  which  became  the  prevalent  one,  came 
to  assign  Mayence  as  the  native  place  of  the  papess. 

The  rise  of  the  myth  falls  into  the  period  of  the 
great  contest  between  the  papacy  and  the  empire, 
a  time  when  the  Germans  often  appeared  in  arms 
before  Rome,  and  in  Rome  broke  down  the  walls 
of  the  city,  took  the  popes  prisoners,  or  compelled 
them  to  take  to  flight.  "Omne  malum  ab  Aquilone," 
was  the  feeling  at  that  time  in  Rome.  Germany  had 
then   no   special    capital  ;    no    recognised    royal    or 

1  Rupell,  Oeschichte  Polens,  p.  77. 


68  POPE  JOAN. 

imperial  place  of  residence.  No  city  but  Mayence 
could  be  called  the  most  important  city  in  the  realm. 
It  was  the  seat  of  the  first  prince  of  the  empire,  ^  and 
the  centre  of  government.  "  Moguntia,  ubi  maxima 
"  vis  regni  esse  noscitur,"  says  Otto  of  Freysingen.  ^ 
In  the  Ligiirinus  of  the  Pseudo-Gunther,  it  is  said  of 
Mayence  :  "  Pene  fuit  toto  sedes  notissima  regno." 

In  the  cycle  of  myths  which  cluster  round 
Charlemagne,  and  which  Italy  also  appropriated 
(e.g.  in  the  Rcali  di  Francia,  which  was  extant  as 
early  as  the  fourteenth  century,  and  in  other  produc- 
tions belonging  to  the  same  cycle  of  myths),  Roman 
aversion  to  the  German  metropolis,  Mayence,  is 
glaringly  prominent.  Mayence  is  the  seat  and  home 
of  the  malicious  scheme  of  treachery  against  Charles 
the  Great  and  his  house.  Ganclo,  the  arch-traitor,  is 
count  of  Mayence.  All  his  party,  and  his  associates 
in  treachery,  are  called  "  Maganzesi."  They  and 
Ganclo,  or  the  men  of  Mayence,  represent  the 
treacherous  usurpation  of  the  empire  by  the  Germans, 
in  violation  of  the  birthright  of  Rome. 

1  [The  electoral  archbishops  of  Mayence  were  the  premier 
princes  of  the  empire;  they  presided  at  diets,  and  at  the  election  of 
tlie  emperor.  Even  in  Roman  times  the  Castelliim  Mognntiacnm 
was  the  most  important  of  the  chain  of  fortresses  which  Drusus  7)uilt 
along  tlie  Rhine,  and  which  in  like  manner  became  the  gerns  of 
large  towns.] 

2  D6  Gtttii  Frfderici  /.,  c.  12. 


POPE  JOAN.  69 

So  again  in  Pulci's  Morgante,  and  in  Ariosto's 
Cinque  Canti  or  Gaficloni.  The  poem,  Doolin  of 
Alaymce,  is,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  German  rejoinder 
to  the  polemics  of  Rome,  as  shown  in  the  Carolin- 
gian  myths.  Here  Doolin,  son  of  Guido,  count  of 
Maycnce,  steps  forward  as  the  rival  of  Charlemagne, 
first  fights  with  him,  then  after  an  indecisive  battle  is 
reconciled  to  him,  with  him  goes  to  Vauclere,  the 
city  of  Aubigeant  (Wittekind),  king  of  Saxony, 
marries  Flandrine,  the  daughter  of  the  latter,  and 
ends  by  joining  with  Charles  in  the  subjugation  of 
Saxony. 

Ganelo  of  Mayence,  the  treacherous  founder  of  the 
first  German  kingdom  by  separation  from  the  West 
Frank  kingdom,  is  supplemented  in  the  Italian  myth 
(which  thus  represents  the  great  contest  and  op- 
position between  Guelf  and  Ghibelline)  by  another 
native  of  Mayence,  Ghibello.  The  story  is  to  be 
found  in  Bogardo's  Italian  version  of  the  Poviariiun 
of  Riccobaldo  of  Fcrrara.  ^  King  Conrad  II.  (it  is 
Conrad  III.  who  is  meant)  nominates  Gibcllo 
Maguntino  to  be  administrator  of  the  kingdom  in 
Lombardy  in  opposition  to  Wclfo,  whom  the  Church 
had  set  up  as  regent  of  Lombardy.  Gibcllo  is  of 
noble   but   poor   family,    had   studied  for   awhile  in 

1  In  Muratori,  SS.  Ital  ix ,  360,  57. 


70  POPE  JOAN. 

Italy,  acquires  then  great  eminence  In  his  native  city, 
Mayence,  becomes  chancellor  of  Bohemia,  but  is 
publicly  convicted  of  "  baratteria,"  i.e.,  of  political 
fraud  or  treason.  He  and  Welfo  now  have  a  contest 
together,  which  ends  in  Gibello  dying  at  Bergamo, 
and  Welfo  at  Milan.  Gibello  of  Maganza  is,  as  one 
sees,  a  repetition  of  Gano  or  Ganelo  of  Maganza. 
But  it  is  also  evident  why  Johannes  or  Johanna  must 
be  made  to  come  from  Mayence,  and  why  "  Magun- 
"  tinus"  or  "  Magantinus"  must  be  called  "  Margan- 
"  tinus."  1 

In  later  times  the  story,  now  romancing  with  an 
object,  endeavoured  to  harmonise  the  two  statements, 

1  Both  in  manuscripts  and  printed  copies  we  repeatedly  find  Mar- 
gantinus  instead  of  Marguntinus.  It  would  appear  that  Margan,  a 
famous  abbey  in  Glamorganshire,  is  here  indicated,  where  tho 
Annales  de  Margan,  with  which  the  second  volume  of  Gale's  Uistorise 
Anglic.  Scriptores  commences,  were  composed.  People  could  not 
reconcile  the  appellation  Anglicus  with  tho  distinctive  name 
Magantinus,  and  accordingly  changed  the  German  birthplace  into 
an  English  one.  Bernard  Guidonis  came  to  the  rescue  in  a  diflforent 
way ;  instead  of  Anglicus,  he  wrote  Johannes  Teutonicus  natione 
Maguntinus.  Vitx  I'ontijlcum,  ap.  Mail  Spicil.  Rom.  vi.,  202.  Among 
tho  amusing  attempts  which  have  been  made  to  reconcile  the  two 
adjectives  Anglicus  and  Maguntinus,  may  be  mentioned  the 
version  of  Amalricus  Angerii  (llisloria  Ponlificum,  ap.  Eccard,  ii., 
1706).  Here  the  woman -pope  is  called  Johannes,  Anglicus  natione, 
dictus  Mtgnanimus  (instead  of  Maguntinus).  The  author  would 
intimate  that  the  boldness  and  strength  of  character,  without  which 
Buch  a  course  of  life,  involving  the  concealment  of  her  sex  for  so 
many  years,  would  not  have  been  possible,  had  won  for  her  tho 
distinctive  title  of  "  magnanimous." 


POPE  JOAN.  71 

that  the  female  pope  was  "  Anglicus,"  and  also 
*'  natione  Maguntinus,"  The  parents  of  Joan  were 
made  to  migrate  from  England  to  Mayence ;  or  she 
was  called  "Anglicus,"  it  was  said,  because  an 
English  monk  in  Fulda  had  been  her  paramour.  ^ 

In  Germany,  however,  people  began  now  to  be 
ashamed  of  the  German  origin  of  Pope  Joan.  She 
was  thrown  in  the  teeth  of  the  Germans,  we  are  told 
in  the  chronicle  of  the  bishops  of  Verden,  because 
she  is  said  to  have  come  from  Mayence.  ^  Indeed 
some  went  so  far  as  to  say  that  this  circumstance  of 
the  German  woman-pope  was  the  reason  why  no 
more  Germans  were  elected  popes,  as  Werner 
Rolevink  mentions,  adding  at  the  same  time  that 
this  was  not  the  true  reason.  ^  In  order  to  conceal 
the  circumstance,  we  find  in  the  German  manuscripts 
of  Martinus  Polonus  "  Margantinus"  constantly  in- 
stead of  "  Magantinus  ;"  and  the  Compilatio  Chronica 
in  Leibnitz  ^  knows  only  of  Johannes  Anglicus.  This 
feeling  that  the  nationality  of  the  papess  was  a  thing 

1  Compare  Marcsii  Johanna  Papisxa  Rfstituta,  p.  18. 

2  Ap.  Leibnitz,  SS.  Brunsvic,  ii.,  212. 

3  Fafcic.  Temp.  set.  vi.,  f.  66.  So  also  in  the  Dutch  Divisie- 
Chronyk,  printed  at  Leydcn  in  the  year  1517.  "  Om  dat  desc  Paeus 
"  wt  duytslant  rus  van  ments  oi)ten  rvn,  ro  menen  soramige,  dat  dit 
•'  die  sake  is,  dat  men  gencu  geborea  duytsche  mecr  tat  paeus 
««  settet." 

4  SS.  Brunsvic,  ii.,  63. 


72  POPE  JOAN. 

of -which  Germany  must  be  ashamed  even  produced 
a  new  romance,  the  object  of  which  was  manifestly 
nothing  else  than  to  transfer  the  home  of  the  female 
pope  and  her  paramour  from  Germany  to  Greece.  ^ 

The  other  feature  in  the  myth,  that  the  woman 
studied  in  Athens,  and  then  came  and  turned  her 
knowledge  to  account  in  Rome  as  a  teacher  of  great 
repute,  is  thoroughly  in  accordance  with  the  spirit 
of  mediaeval  legends.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  no  one  for  a 
thousand  years  had  gone  from  the  West  to  Athens  for 
purposes  of  study ;  for  the  very  best  of  reasons, 
because  there  was  nothing  more  to  be  found  there. 
But  that  was  no  obstacle  to  the  myth,  according 
to  which  Athens  in  ancient  times  (that  means 
perhaps  before  the  rise  of  the  University  of  Paris) 
was  accounted  as  the  one  great  scat  of  education 
and  learning.  For  that  there  was,  and  ought  to  be, 
only  one  "  Studium,"  just  as  there  was,  and  ought  to 
be,  only  one  Empire  and  one  Popedom,  was  the 
prevailing  sentiment  of  that  age.  "  The  Church  has 
"  need  of  three  powers  or  institutions,"  we  read  in  the 
Chronica  Jordanis,  "  the  Priesthood,  the  Empire,  and 
"  the  University,     And  as  the  Priesthood  has  only 

4  It  is  to  be  foTiixi  in  a  TnannKrri])t  from  Torgcrnsce,  now  in  tho 
royal  library  .'it  Aliiiiich,  of  the  fifteenth  century,  Codex  lat.  Tegerna., 
781.    [See  Api)cudix  A.J 


POPE  JOAN.  7z 

"  one  seat,  namely  Rome,  so  the  University  has  and 
"  needs  only  one  seat,  namely  Paris.  Of  the  three 
"  leading  nations  each  possesses  one  of  these  in- 
"  stitutions.  The  Romans  or  Italians  have  the 
"  Priesthood,  the  Germans  have  the  Empire,  and  the 
"  French  have  the  University,"  ^ 

This  University  was  originally  in  Athens,  thence 
it  was  transported  to  Rome,  and  from  Rome  Charle- 
•magne  (or  his  son)  transplanted  it  to  Paris,  The 
very  year  of  this  transfer  was  stated.  Thus  we  find 
in  the  Chronicoii  Tielcnsc^  ^  "Anno  D.  830,  Romanum 
"  studium,  quod  prius  Athenis  exstitit,  est  translatum 
"  Parisios." 

Hence  in  ancient  times,  according  to  the  prevalent 
notion,  the  University  was  at  Athens  ;  and  whoever 
would  rise  to  great  eminence  in  the  sphere  of  know- 
ledge must  go  there.  There  were  only  two  ways 
in  which  a  foreign  adventurer  could  attain  to  the 
highest  office  in  the  Church — piety,  or  learning.  The 
legend  could  not  make  the  girl  from  Maycnce  become 
eminent  through   piety ;  this  would  not   agree  with 

1  In  Schard.  De  Juritd.  Imperiali  ac  Potest.  Ecelet.  Variorum 
Authorum  Scripta.,  Basil.,  1566,  p.  307. 

2  Ell.  van  Lccuwcn,  Trajecti,  1789,  p.  37.  So  also  Gobcliniis 
Persona.  The  anonymous  writer  in  Vincent  of  Beauvais  had 
previously  stated,  "  Alcuinus  stiidiura  dc  Roma  Parisios  transtulit, 
"  quod  illuc  a  Gracia  translatum  fuerat  a  Bomanls." 


74  POPE  yOAN, 

her  subsequent  seduction  and  the  birth  of  the  child  in 
the  open  street.  Therefore  it  was  through  her  learn- 
ing that  she  won  for  herself  universal  admiration, 
and,  at  the  election  to  the  papacy,  a  unanimous  vote. 
And  this  learning  she  could  only  have  attained  in 
Athens.  For  the  University,  as  Amalricus  Augerii 
says,  was  at  that  time  in  Greece.  ^ 

1  See  Eccard  ,  ii.,  1707. 

[For  additional  matter  on  the  general  subject  of  the  Papess,  see 
Appendix  B.J 


II.  rOPE  CYRIACUS. 

Pope  Cyriacus  was  foisted  into  the  Roman  list  of 
popes  about  the  same  time  as  Pope  Joan,  and  Hke 
her,  maintained  his  usurped  position  for  a  long  time. 
Here  intentional  imposture,  visionary  fancy  and 
groundless  credulity  conspired  together  to  create  a 
pope  as  unreal  and  as  purely  invented  as  Pope  Joan. 
In  the  midiilc  of  the  twelfth  century  the  nun 
Elizabeth,  in  the  monasteiy  of  Schonau,  in  the  dio- 
cese of  Treves,  stood  far  and  wide  in  high  repute. 
Her  visions  were  inexhaustible  ;  and  as  often  as  a 
grave  was  opened,  and  the  bones  and  remains  of 
some  nameless  corpse  wore  found,  the  name  and 
history  of  the  unknown  dead  were  revealed  to  her,  as 
she  said,  by  an  angel  or  a  saint.  This  worked  with 
inspiriting  effect  on  those  who  wanted  new  relics  of 
saints  for  a  church  or  a  chapel  to  attract  the  stream 
of  population  thither.  Elizabeth  had  already  been 
busy  with  the  myth  of  St.  Ursula  *  and  her  maidens  ; 

[They  are  said  to  have  been  martyred  in  237  ;  the  Rixtectub 
centenary  of  the  event  was  celeliniUti  in  1837.  Yet  it  was  tho 
Huns  returuins  from  their  dtfrat  at  Ciialons,  in  451,  who  \n:t  tlie 
maidens  to  death  !  St.  I'rsula's  name  aiipears  in  no  martyn>li)j;y 
earlier  than  thi;  tenth  centiiry.  Mr.  Bjirinji-Gould  eonsidors  he'-  as 
"  no  other  than  tlie  Swabian  froddess  Ursi-l  or  Horsel  tran.'iformid 
"into  a  saint  of  the  Christian  calendar." — Curious  Mythi  of  the 
Middle  Ages,  18G9,  p.  331]. 


76  POPE  CYRIACUS. 

and  since  1155  thousands  of  corpses  had  been  dug  up 
in  -the  fields  near  Cologne,  all  of  which  were  said  to 
have  belonged  to  St.  Ursula's  company.  At  last, 
however,  the  corpses  of  men  also  came  to  light. 
Tombstones  with  inscriptions  were  discovered  there, 
or  rather  were  forthwith  invented.  They  spoke  of  an 
Archbishop  Simplicius,  of  Ravenna,  Marinus,  bishop 
of  Milan,  Pantulus,  of  Basle,  and  several  cardinals 
and  priests.  There  was,  moreover,  a  stone  with  the 
inscription — "  St.  Cyriacus  Papa  Romanus  qui  cum 
"gaudio  suscepit  sacras  virgincs  et  cum  iisdem  re- 
"  versus  martyrium  suscepit  et  St.  Alina  V."  These 
epitaphs  were  sent  by  the  abbot  Gerlach  to  Elizabeth. 
By  the  visions  which  she  saw  in  her  states  of  magnetic 
clairvoyance  she  was  to  decide  whether  these  tablets 
were  to  be  believed. ^  For  he  himself,  as  he  said, 
entertained  a  suspicion  that  the  stones  might  have 
been  secretly  buried  there  with  a  view  to  gain. 
Her^  unwillingness  to  act  as  judge  was  overcome, 
and  now  the  following  history  came  to  light.     At  the 

1  The  inscriptions  and  the  narration  of  St.  Eizaboth  are  to  bo 
found,  Ada  Sanctorum  Octbr.  ix.,  8G-88.  The  fin.  !ing  of  tlie  tomb- 
stones was  set  on  foot,  it  seems,  to  exphiiii  tlie  appearance  of  so 
many  bones  of  males  in  the  field  (agcr  Ur.sulanus),  where  people 
had  been  accustomed  to  expect  only  the  bones  of  the  pretended 
virgins,  and  in  order  to  vindirate  the  honour  of  tin  maidens. 

2  "Diutina  postulationc  me  multum  resistentc  m  compulenmt," 
are  her  words. 


POPE  CYRfACUS.  77 

time  when  I'rsula  and  her  maidens  came  to  Rome, 
Cyriacus  hact  already  reigned  a  year  and  eleven 
weeks  as  the  nineteenth  pope.  In  the  night  he  re- 
ceived the  command  of  heaven  to  renounce  his  ofiice, 
and  go  forth  with  the  maidens,  for  a  martyr's  death 
awaited  him  :ind  them.  He  accordingly  resigned  his 
authority  into  the  hands  of  the  cardinals,  and  caused 
Antherus  to  be  raised  to  the  papacy  in  his  place. 
The  Roman  clergy,  however,  were  so  indignant  at  the 
abdication  of  Cyriacus  that  they  struck  his  name  out 
of  the  list  of  the  popes. 

Accordingly,  every  objection  created  by  previously- 
existing  authorities  was  forthwith  quashed,  and  the 
chroniclers  cf  the  thirteenth  century  determined 
without  further  thought  that  the  newly  discovered 
pope  must  be  inserted  between  Pontianus  and  Anteros 
(238).  The  first  to  do  this  was  the  Prcmonstratcnsian 
monk,  Robert  Abolant  at  Auxerre,  who  in  the  first 
part  of  this  century  composed  a  general  chronicle. 
The  Dominicans,  Vincent  of  Beauvais  and  Thomas 
of  Chantinpre,  followed,  and  after  them  the  Cistercian 
Alberich,  Martinus  Polonus  was  in  this  case  also  the 
decisive  authority  and  source  of  information  for  the 
times  subsequent  to  himself  In  him  the  reason  why 
Cyriacus  was  not  found  in  the  Catalogits  Pontifiaun 
is  given  with  more  particularity  :  "  Credebant  enim 


78  POPE  CYRIACUS. 

*'  plerique  eum  non  propter  devotioncm,  sed  propter 
"  oblectamenta  virginum  Papatum  di misisse."  And 
on  this  point  Leo  of  Orvieto  has  followed  him. 
Aimery  du  Peyrat^  also,  and  Bernard  Guidonis^  con- 
tend for  Cyriacus,  while  Amalrich  Augerii  passes  him 
over.  The  oldest  chronicle  In  the  German  language 
(about  1330)  says  of  him  :  "  Want  er  lies  daz  babcs- 
**  thum  und  die  wurdikeit  wider  der  Cardinal  willen, 
"  und  fur  mit  den  XL  tusing  megden  gen  Colen,  und 
"  wart  gemartert,  darumb  tilkcten  die  cardinal  sincn 
"  namen  abe  der  bebiste  buche."  "^  The  Eulogiuni 
historiarum,  compiled  by  a  monk  of  Malmesbury 
about  the  year  1366,  introduces  him  with  the  remark, 
"  flic  cessit  de  papatu  contra  voluntatem  cleri."  ^  In 
the  fifteenth  century  Cyriacus,  as  was  to  be  expected, 
appeared  in  all  the  better  known  historical  works  ; 
in  Antonius,  Philip  of  Bergamo,  Nauklerus,  etc.,  and 

1  Notices  et  Extraitt,  vi.,  Y7. 

2  Maii  Spicil,  vi.,  29. 

3  ["  Since,  against  the  will  of  the  Cardinals,  he  f^ave  Tip  the  papacy 
anil  the  honor,  and  wont  with  the  eleven  thousand  maidens  to  Co- 
logne, and  was  martyred,  on  this  account  the  (  anlinals  expunged 
his  name  from  the  Popes'  Book."]  Oberrheiniscke  Chronik,  edited 
hy  S.  A.  Grieshaher,  1850,  p.  5. 

4  Ed.  Scott  TTiiydon,  I^ond.,  1858,  i.,  180.  [Tlnic  snccessit  Siriacns 
papa  qui  sedit  anno  uno,  nicnsibus  iii. ;  hie  cessi:  de  pajiatu  eonfnt 
volnntntcm  eleri,  sequendo  ,\i  in.  virgines  (pi;is  b;'pti/,;ivenit,  et  sul>- 
Stituendo  Auaclerum,  et  ideo  uon  appouitiir  in  <  atiiiogo  papuruiu.J 


POPE  CYRIACUS.  79 

hence  passed  even  into  the  older  editions  of  the 
Roman  breviary.^ 

But  as  early  as  the  last  year  of  the  thirteenth 
century  the  story  of  Cyriacus  had  become  of  no  small 
practical  importance,  and  the  lawyers  had  appro-' 
priatcd  it  for  their  purposes. 

The  resignation  of  Coelestine  V.,  and  the  con- 
sequent elevation  of  Boniface  VI 11.  to  the  papacy, 
created  very  great  commotion.  Many  were  of  opinion 
that  it  was  utterly  impossible  for  a  pope  to  resign, 
for  he  had  no  ecclesiastical  superior  who  could 
release  him  from  his  sacred  obligations,  and  no  one 
can  release  himself.  The  numerous  opponents  of  Bo- 
niface pounced  upon  this  question,  and  it  was  now  of 
importance  to  discover  instances  of  popes  resigning. 
Accordingly  the  author  of  the  Glossa  Ordinaria  to 
the  decree,  in  which  Boniface  VIII.  affirmed  the  right 
of  popes  to  resign,  appealed  to  the  undoubted 
instance  of  Cyriacus  ;  ^  and  thenceforward  nearly  all 

1  Bcrti,  in  the  Raccolta  di  Ditsertaxion  of  Zaccnria,  ii.,  10,  remarks 
that  he  finds  the  fabulous  acts  of  8t.  Ursuhi  even  in  the  breviarj  of 
1526  ;  and,  according  to  Launoi,  they  are  still  found  in  the  breviary 
of  1550. 

2  "  Datur  autcm  certura  excmplura  do  Cyriaco  Papa,  de  (juo 
"  logitur,  qucxl  cum  Ursula  ct  undccim  millibus  virginuni  in.irtyr- 
"  izjitus  est."  Then  follows  the  narrative  as  given  by  Martinus  IV!<>- 
nus.  Thus  it  stands  in  the  older  editions  of  the  Lib  .  vi.  Dfcret  d.^ 
cap.  Renunciat.,  Lugdun.  1520,  1550,  1553.  In  the  later  editions 
the  passage  is  omitted. 


8o  POPE  CYRIACUS. 

canonists  availed  themselves  of  the  same  pretended 
authority,  and  not  only  they,  but  theologians  also,  as, 
for  example,  ^^gidius  Colonna  ^  and  Sylvester  Prieras.  * 
It  was  usual  to  quote  three  popes  in  primitive  times 
'as  instances  of  abdication,  Clement,  Marcellinus,  and 
Cyriacus ;  ^  so  that  it  really  was  a  most  strange 
mishap  that  all  three  cases  should  be  invention. 

The  supposed  resignation  of  Clement  was  invented 
merely  to  harmonise  the  discrepancy  between  the 
statements,  according  to  which  he  was  sometimes 
said  to  have  come  immediately  after  St,  Peter,  some- 
times not  till  after  Linus  and  Anacletus. 

1  De  Senunciatione  Papx,  in  Eocaberti  Biblioth.  Max.  Fontif., 
ji.,  61. 

2  So,  for  instance,  Aiigustinus  de  Ancona,  Summa,  quest.  4,  art. 
0:  "Respomles  dicendum,  quod  Canones  ot  gesta  rontificum  qua- 
"  tuor  Summos  Pontifices  narrant  renuncias.«e  Pontificatui,  Clcinc-n- 
"  tcm,  Cyriacum,  Marcellinum  ct  Caik'stinum.''  So  too,  Albcrictis  do 
llosate,  Doniiiiicus  a  S.  Geniiniano,  Johannes  Tunccremata,  Anto- 
nius  Oucchus  Bartliolomajus  Fumus,  and  others. 


III.  MARCELLINUS. 

The  fable  about  Pope  MarcelHnus  is  far  more  an- 
cient than  the  fiction  of  Pope  Cyriacus.  For  nearly  a 
thousand  years  it  passed  for  truth  along  with  the 
equally  imaginary  synod  of  Sinuessa,  and  has  been 
much  used  by  theologians  and  lawyers  in  support  of 
their  theories.  ^ 

At  the  beginning  of  the  persecution  under  Dio- 
cletian (this  is  the  fable  in  substance),  the  pontifex  of 
the  Capitol  represented  to  MarcelHnus,  who  wa5  then 
pope,  that  he  might  without  scruple  offer  incense  to 
the  gods,  for  the  three  wise  men  from  the  East  had 
done  so  before  Christ.  Both  agreed  to  let  the  point 
be  decided  by  Diocletian,  who  was  at  that  time 
in  Persia,  and  he  naturally  ordered  that  the  pope 
should  offer  incense.  Accordingly  MarcelHnus  is 
conducted  to  the  temple  of  Vesta,  and  there  offers 

1   [It  is  well  known  that  this  fable  has  boon  admitted  into  the 

Roman  breviary.      The  interpolation  seems  to  have  been  made   in 

the  fust  half  of  the  sixteenth  eentiiry.  ".\  la  fito  dc  Saint  Mareellin, 

"  le  16  Avril,  I'aneien  breviairo  romain  de  1520  so  borne  au  reeit  du 

"  martyre  de  ce  Pape.    Mais  voici  nn  autre  breviairo  romain  de  1536 

"(Bibl.  Saintc  Genevieve,  No.  B  B  70),  et  un  autre  de  1542  (Ibid. 

"No.   B  B  67)    oil    Ton   introduit  la  fable   odieuse    et   ridicule    du 

"  pretendu  concile  de  Siuuesse." — A.  Gratry,  Premiere  letlre  (i  Jigr. 

"  Des .  hamps,  p.  58. J 

81 


82  POPE  MARCELLINUS. 

sacrifices,  in  the  presence  of  a  crowd  of  Christian 
spectators,  to  Hercules,  Jupiter,  and  Saturn.  At  the 
news  of  this  three  ^  hundred  bishops  leave  their  sees, 
and  gather  together  to  hold  a  council,  first  in  a  cavern 
near  Sinuessa,  but,  as  this  would  not  hold  more  than 
fifty,  afterwards  in  the  town  itself  Along  with  them 
were  thirty  Roman  priests.  Several  priests  and 
deacons  are  deposed,  merely  because  they  had  gone 
away  when  they  saw  the  pope  enter  the  temple. 
Marcellinus,  on  the  other  hand,  neither  may  nor  can 
be  judged,  being  supreme  head  of  the  church, — this 
conviction  pervades  the  whole  synod, — the  ^  pope  can 
only  be  judged  by  himself.  At  first  he  attempts  to 
palliate  his  act ;  but  seventy-two  witnesses  make 
accusation  against  him.  Thereupon  he  ^  acknow- 
ledges his  guilt,  and  himself  pronounces  his  own 
deposition  on  the  23rd  of  August,  303.  After  this  the 
bishops  remain  quietly  together  in  Sinuessa,  until 
Diocletian,  upon  receiving  intelligence  of  this  synod 

1  [A  number  quite  impossible  for  that  country,  especially  in  a 
time  of  persecution.] 

2  [The  bishops  say  to  him,  "Tii  cris  judex;  ex  te  cnim  dam- 
"  nabcris,  et  ex  tc  justificaberis,  taraen  in  nostra  pncsentia.  I'lima 
"  Scdes  non  judicabitur  a  quoquam."] 

3  [He  denied  his  guilt  the  first  two  days ;  but  on  the  third  da\', 
being  adjured  in  God's  name  to  speak  the  truth,  ho  throws  himself 
on  the  ground,  covers  his  head  with  ashes,  and  repeatedly  acknow- 
ledges his  guilt,  adding  that  he  had  been  bribed  to  offer  sacrifice.] 


POPE  MARCELLINUS,  83 

in  Persia,  sends  an  order  for  the  execution  of  many  of 
the  three  huncl;cd,  and  this  is  carried  into  effect. 

Since  the  ti.ne  of  Baronius  not  a  single  historian 
worth  mentioning  has  renewed  the  attempt  to 
maintain  the  authenticity  of  this  synod  of  Sinuessa 
and  its  acts,  this  clumsy  structure  of  absurdities  and 
impossibilities.  ^  Whether  any  residuum  of  truth,  any 
actual  lapse  on  the  part  of  Marcellinus  in  the  persecu- 
tion, lies  at  the  bottom  of  the  fabrication,  cannot 
now  be  stated  with  certainty.  Contemporary  writers 
say  nothing  on  the  subject.  Later  on  the  Donatists 
alone,  in  the  time  of  Augustine,  professed  to  know 
that  Marcellinus,  and  with  him  his  successors, 
Melchiades,  Marcellus,  and  Sylvester,  who  were  at 
that  time  priests,  had  [delivered  up  the  Scriptures, 
and  had]  offered  incense  to  the  gods  in  the  persecu- 
tion. The  bishop  of  Hippo  treats  it  as  a  fabrication. 
Theodorct  maintains  that  Marcellinus  was  con- 
spicuous at  the  time  of  the  persecution  (of  course  for 

1  [Hefc^lc  {Conciliengeschichtey  m.,  iii.,  §  10,  note  2)  gives  tho 
main  authorities  against  tlie  fable.  Augustine,  I)e  unico  Baptismo 
contra  Pctilianum,  c.  16 ;  Theodorct,  JIUc.,  EccL.  lib.  i.,  c.  2.  Among 
commentiitors,  Pa;,'i,  Crit.  in  Annates  Baronii.  ad  ann.  302,  n.  18  ; 
Papebroeh,  in  the  Acta  Sanct.  in  Propyl.  Mag ,  vol.  viii. ;  Nntalis 
Alexander,  Hit.  Feci.  saie.  iii.,  di.s.s.  x.x.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  135,  cd.  Venet., 
1778  ;  Remi  Ceillicr,  Ilift.  des  auteurs  saeris,  vol.  iii.,  p.  631.  Among 
Protestant  authors,  Bower,  Ilisl.  of  the  Popes,  vol  i  ,  j).  G8  ff. ;  Walch, 
Uiit.  d.  Paps'.e,  p.  68  ff. ;  Uisl.  der  KircAenvers.,  p.  126  J 


84  POPE  MARCELLINUS. 

his  constancy).  However,  it  has  lately  come  to  h'ght 
that  a  fiction,  composed  about  the  same  time,  and 
perhaps  by  the  same  hand,  as  that  about  the  synod  of 
Sinuessa,  was  connected  with  events  which  really  took 
place  in  Rome.  This  was  the  Constitutum  Silvcstri.  And 
hence  it  is  possible  that  a  circumstance,  at  that  time 
still  known  in  Rome,  may  have  afforded  tlie  first  mate- 
rial for  the  fabrication  respecting  Marcellinus  also. 

But  however  that  may  be,  of  a  synod  at  Sinuessa 
at  this  time  there  is  not  a  trace  anywhere  else  to  be 
found.  The  Acts  of  the  pretended  synod  are 
evidently  fabricated  in  order  to  manufacture  an 
historical  support  for  the  principle,  tJiat  a  pope  can  be 
judged  by  no  man.  This  incessantly-repeated  sentence 
is  tiic  red  thread  which  runs  through  the  whole  ; 
the  rest  is  mere  appenda*^e.  By  this  means  it 
is  to  be  inculcated  on  the  laity  that  they  must  nol 
venture  to  come  forward  as  accusers  of  the  clergy, 
and  on  the  inferior  clergy  that  they  must  not  do  the 
like  against  their  superiors.  The  date  and  occasion 
of  the  fabrication  can  be  stated  with  tolerable 
certainty.  The  older  list  of  the  popes,  which  comes 
down  to  the  death  of  Felix  III.  in  530,  and  can 
scarcely  have  been  made  later  than  the  seventh 
century,  has  already  accepted  the  fable  about  the 
apostasy  of  Marcellinus. 


POPE  MARCELLINUS.  85 

On  the  other  hand,  the  language  of  the  document 
is  so  barbarous  that  it  can  hardly  have  been  written 
before  the  close  of  the  fifth  century.  And  thus  we 
are  directed  to  those  troubled  sixteen  years  (498-5 14), 
*in  which  the  pontificate  of  Symmachus  ran  its  course. 
At  that  time  the  two  parties  of  Laurcntius  and  Sym- 
machus stood  opposed  to  one  another  in  Rome  as 
foes.  People,  senate,  and  clergy  were  divided ;  they 
fought  and  murdered  in  the  streets,  and  Laurcntius 
maintained  himself  for  several  years  in  possession  of 
part  of  the  churches.  Symmachus  was  accused  by 
his  opponents  of  grave  offences.  He  had  to  answer 
for  himself  before  a  synod,  which  King  Thcodoric 
summoned  ;  if  he  should  be  found  guilty  he  must  be 
deposed,  cried  the  one  party  ;  while  the  other  party 
maintained  that  for  a  pope  there  was  no  earthly 
tribunal.  ^  This  was  the  time  at  which  Eunodius 
wrote  his  apology  for  Symmachus,  and  this  accord- 
ingly was  also  the  time  at  which  the  synod  of 
Sinuessa,  as  well  as  the  Cotistitutuui  of  Sylvester,  was 

1  •'  IIos  (his,  viz.,  nonnnllis  opiscopis  ct  Kcnatoribus)  palam  pro 
"i-jus  dcfcnsionc  clamantibiis,  qtuxl  a  nullo  posfit  Uorannns  ronti- 
"fi'X,  ctiamsi  talis  sit,  qualis  acciisuttir,  audiri."  Vila  Symmftchi'wx 
Muratori,  5S'  Itah,  iii.,  n.,  4G.  ["  In  sacirdotiljiiH  CTtcris  pot<^'st  si 
"quid  forto  nutavcrit,  roformari  :  at  si  papa  urbis  vocatur  in  dul)iuiii, 
"episcopatiis  vidtbitur,  non  jam  cpiseoi)Us,  vacillarc." — Avitus  al 
jStfrait.  apud  Labbe,  p.  1365. 

He  adds  further  on,  "Xon  cstgregis  pastoremterrcre,  sed  judicis."] 


B6  POPE  MARCELLINUS. 

fabricated.  The  hostile  party  were  numerous  and 
influential,  their  opposition  was  tenacious  and  un- 
remitting, their  demand  for  an.  inquiry  and  exami- 
nation of  witnesses  seemed  natural  and  fair  ;  and 
therefore  the  adherents  of  Symmachus  caught  at  this  » 
means  of  showing  that  the  inviolability  of  the  pope 
had  been  long  since  recognised  as  a  fact,  and  enounced 
as  a  rule. 

A  third  fabrication,  the  Gesta  de  Xysti  piirgatione 
et  Polychronii  Ierosoly7mtani  episcopi  accusatioue,  was 
produced  by  the  same  hand,  and  for  the  same 
purpose.^  As  in  the  Apology  of  Eunodius,  so  also 
in  the  Constitiitum  and  the  Gcsta,  the  principle  is 
inculcated  that  a  pope  has  no  earthly  judge  over  him. 
If  he  lies  under  grave  suspicion,  or  if  charges  are 
brought  against  him,  he  must  himself  declare  his 
own  guilt,  himself  pronounce  his  own  deposition,  as 
Marcellinus,  or  he  must  clear  himself  by  the  simple 
asseveration  of  his  own  innocence,  as  Xystus  III., 
according  to  the  Gcsta,  is  said  to  have  done,  when  a 
charge  of  unchastity  was  brought  against  him  by 
Bassus.  Besides  all  this,  the  prosecution  of  a  bishop 
for  anything  whatever  was  rendered  difficult  or  im- 
possible according  to  the  three  fictitious  documents ; 

1  They  arc  all  to  be  found  in  tlio  ApiJoudix  to  Constant's  edition 
of  the  Epistolx  Ponlificum  Rom. 


POPE  MARCELLINUS.  87 

for  seventy-two  (or,  according  to  the  Gesta,  at  any 
rate  forty)  witnesses  were  to  be  required  in  such 
cases. 

In  later  times  the  fable  was  made  use  of  for 
altogether  different  purposes.  Pope  Nicolas  I.  quoted 
it  in  his  letter  to  the  Greek  emperor  ^  Michael 
[a.d.  2)62],  because  it  showed  that  the  deposition  of 
Ignatius  was  contrary  to  ecclesiastical  discipline, 
since  he  had  been  sentenced  by  his  inferiors. 

Gerson  ^  made  use  of  it,  on  the  other  hand, 
together  with  the  lapse  of  Liborius,  in  order,  by 
means  of  these  instances  of  heresy  in  popes  (this 
word,  as  is  well  known,  was  specially  used  at  that 
time  in  the  wider  sense  of  a  denial  of  the  faith),  to 
prove  the  legitimacy  of  a  council  assembled  cither 
without  or  against  the  authority  of  the  pope.  Gcrbctt 
also  appealed  to  it  with  a  similar  object. 

1  In  Harduin,  Cone.  Coll.,  v.,  155. 

2  Strm.  coram  Alex.  v.  u.,  136,  ed.  Dupin. 


IV.   CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER. 

If  the  mere  number  of  witnesses  could  make  a 
statement  credible,  there  would  be  no  fact  more  certain 
or  irrefutable  than  that  the  Emperor  Constantine, 
more  than  twenty  years  before  his  death,  was  baptized 
at  Rome  by  pope  Sylvester,  and  at  the  same  time 
cured  of  leprosy.  For  nearly  eight  hundred  years  the 
whole  of  western  Europe  had  no  other  belief,  and  for 
just  as  long  a  period  people  laboured  in  vain  to  ex- 
plain the  fact  how,  nevertheless,  the  sources  from 
which  every  one  acquired  his  knowledge  of  the  fourth 
century  on  other  points,  viz.,  the  Historia  Tripartita, 
the  Chronicle  of  Jerome,  and  the  Chronicle  of  Isidore, 
could  be  unanimous  in  stating  that  Constantine  was 
baptized,  not  in  Rome,  but  in  a  castle  near  Nicomedia, 
not  by  the  pope,  but  by  the  Arian  bishop  Eusebius, 
not  immediately  on  his  conversion  from  heathenism, 
but  only  just  before  his  death. 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  according  to  the  mode  of 

thought  and  historic  sentiment  of  the  Middle  Ages, 

the    real    facts    must   have   appeared    inconceivable, 

while  the  fabulous  version,  on  the  other  hand,  seemed 

perfectly  natural  and  intelligible.     The  most  impor- 
ts 


CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER.    89 

tant  and  decisive  event  of  antiquity,  the  transition  of 
the  ruler  of  the  world  from  heathenism  to  Christianity, 
— where  else  could  this  take  place  but  in  the  capital 
of  the  world  ?  It  must  have  been  the  Head  of  the 
Church  who  opened  the  doors  of  the  Church  to  the 
Head  of  earthly  sovereigns.  And  that  the  pious 
Constantine,  the  son  of  the  sainted  Helena,  the 
founder  of  the  Christian  empire  of  Rome,  should  of 
his  own  accord  have  remained  all  his  life  long  unbap- 
tized,  not  receiving  the  sacraments,  and  in  reality 
having  no  claim  even  to  the  name  of  Christian, — that 
was  a  thing  which  it  was  utterly  impossible  to  be- 
lieve. 

A  baptistery  which  bore  the  name  of  Constantine 
.  at  a  very  early  period,  possibly  because  it  was  really 
built  by  his  order,  and  at  his  cost,  may  have  given 
the  first  occasion  to  the  myth,  in  that  people  thought 
that  it  was  so  called  because  Constantine  was  baptized 
in  it.  For  in  later  times  it  was  considered  as  an  irre- 
fragable and  monumental  witness  to  the  truth  of  a 
circumstance  which  all  were  eager  to  believe. 

The  legend  of  Sylvester,  manifestly  fabricated  in 
order  to  attest  the  fact  of  Constantine's  having 
been  baptized  in  Rome,  cannot  have  been  com- 
posed later  than  the  close  of  the  fifth  century.  It 
is  all   of  one   casting,  and   bears   no   traces   of  later 


90    CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER. 

additions.  The  Greek  ^  text  in  which  it  is  contained 
is  evidently  a  translation  from  the  Latin,  which  no 
doubt  was  written  in  Rome.  ^  In  the  whole  docu- 
ment there  is  not  one  historical  trait  to  be  found. 
Constantine  is,  to  begin  with,  the  enemy  of  the  Chris- 
tians, and  causes  many  of  them — along  with  them  his 
own  wife — to  be  executed,  because  they  will  not  offer 
sacrifice  to  idols,  so  that  Sylvester  flies  to  Mount 
Soracte.  The  emperor,  struck  with  leprosy,  is  told 
that  to  be  cured  he  must  bathe  in  a  pool  filled  with 
boys'  blood  newly  shed ;  but  overcome  by  the  tears 
of  4he  mothers  of  these  boys  he  rejects  the  horrible 
remedy,  and  is  directed  in  a  heavenly  vision  to  apply 
to  Sylvester.  Sylvester  heals  him  of  his  disease  by 
means  of  Christian  baptism  ;  whereupon  the  whole  of 
Rome,  senate  and  people,  believe  in  Christ.  Two 
episodes  are  interwoven  with  the  story ;  the  first 
respecting  an  enormous  snake  living  under  the  Tar- 
peian  Rock,  and  slaying  thousands  with  its  pestiferous 
breath,  until  Sylvester  closes  the  entrance  of  its  hole  ; 
and   secondly,   a   long    disputation    with    the   Jews 

1  Edited  by  Combefis  in  his  Illuttr.  Chr.  Marty  rum  lecli  Triumphi, 
Paris  IGGO. 

2  This  is  sliown  by  a  passage  quite  at  tlic  beginning,  in  wliicli  it 
is  said  of  PvUsebius  :*  ri}  .OJj/vIkti  awtyprnpaTo  y^.uaoij.  Of  course  iio 
Greek  would  have  made  such  a  remark. 


CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER.    91 

(brought  about  by  Helena),  in  which  Sylvester  comes 
off  victorius. 

The  author  is  acquainted  with  the  ecclesiastical 
history  of  Eusebius.  He  intends  (as  he  says  at  the 
outset)  to  complete  the  narrative  of  Eusebius ;  but 
he  either  was  not  acquainted  with  the  biography  of 
Constantine,  which  gives  an  account  of  the  baptism 
of  the  emperor,  or  at  any  rate  he  presupposed  that 
his  readers  were  not  acquainted  with  it.  And  he 
actually  did  succeed  in  making  his  fable  current,  in 
spite  of  the  decisive  and  unanimous  witnesses  of  the 
fourth  century.  Even  the  Chronicle  of  Jerome,  which 
people  otherwise  followed  with  unqualified  assent  in 
matters  of  history,  was  at  last  on  this  point  superseded. 

The  legend  of  Sylvester  is  mentioned  for  the  first 
time  in  the  decretal  of  Pope  Gelasius  (492-496),  De 
Libris  Recipicndis  ct  non  Rccipicndis.  There  it  is  said, 
'"the  name  or  the  author  is  indeed  unknown,^  but  it 
"  has  been  said  that  it  was  read  by  many  Catholics 
"  in  the  city  of  Rome,  and  many  churches  imitated 
"  this  ancient  custom."  ^      It  is   manifest  that  these 

1  Cf.  the  double  text  in  Fontauini  De  Antiquilatibus  Horta.  Rome, 
1723,  p.  322,  and  Crcdncr's  edition. 

2  "  Pro  antique  usu,"  which  nuans  the  ancient  custom  of  intro- 
ducing the  wiitings  used  in  Rome  into  other  churches  also.  In 
anotlicr  manuscript  tlie  reading  is  "<t  pro  hoc  quoque  usu  multaj 
"h.-cc  imitautur  eccksi.T." — See  C'rcdner,  Zitr  Geschichte  des  Kanons, 
1847,  p.  210. 


92     CONSTANTINE  AND  S  YL  VESTER. 

are  not  the  words  of  Gelasius  himself,  and  were 
not  written  in  Rome,  but  elsewhere.  The  whole 
is  a  subsequent  addition  ;  one  of  the  many  which 
gradually  crept  into  the  document  in  the  period 
between  A.D.  500  and  800.  Nevertheless,  the  inven- 
tion of  the  legend  must  fall  either  within  the  time  of 
Gelasius,  or  more  probably  soon  after  him,  within  the 
time  of  Symmachus,  498-514.  For  in  the  fictions 
which  belong  to  the  time  of  Symmachus,  and  which 
were  called  into  existence  by  the  circumstances 
relating  to  this  pope,  especially  in  the  Constiiuticm 
Sylvestri  and  the  Gesta  Liber il  Papcc,  the  baptism  of 
Constantine  at  Rome,  and  his  cleansing  from  leprosy, 
are  mentioned  with  unmistakeable  rcierence  to  the 
legend.  And  moreover,  this  is  done  so  designedly 
and  unnaturally  as  to  betray  the  fact,  that  the  legend 
of  Sylvester  excited  the  very  gravest  doubts,  and 
therefore  must  be  supported  and  confirmed.  Above 
all,  it  was  intended  to  weaken  the  strength  of  such 
weighty  evidence  as  that  which  Jerome,  Ambrose, 
Prosper,  and  others  afforded  for  the  baptism  of  Con- 
stantine in  the  palace  of  Acyron,  near  Nicomedia;  and 
therefore  in  the  Gcsta  Libcrii  an  emperor  is  invented, 
who  is  supposed  to  be  the  nephew  of  Constantine, 
and  who  is  called  in  turn  Constantine,  Constantius, 
and  Constans.    Then,  without  any  further  occasion  or 


CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER.    93 

any  closer  connection  with  the  contents  of  the 
document,  it  is  asserted  of  this  personage  that  he  was 
baptized  by  Euscbius  of  Nicomedia  in  Nicomedia,  at 
the  Villa  Aquilo.  Here  everything  is  taken  into  ac- 
count :  the  change  of  name,  as  well  as  the  transforma- 
tion of  tlie  son  into  a  nephew  of  Constantine.  This 
nephew  takes  it  as  a  grievous  affront  that  Libcrius 
should  say  that  his  uncle  was  baptized  by  Sylvester, 
and  thereby  cleansed  from  his  leprosy  ;  and  he  threat- 
ens that  when  he  comes  to  Rome  he  will  give  the  flesh 
of  Liberius  to  the  birds  and  beasts  of  prey.  Hence  it 
is  the  more  probable — nay,  certain,  that  the  legend  of 
Sylvester  and  the  fiction  of  the  baptism  of  Constantine 
at  Rome  became  extant  contemporaneously  with  the 
fables  which  were  invented  in  the  interests  of  Symma- 
chus  and  the  Roman  clergy  of  that  time,  that  is  to 
say,  in  '^c  first  few  years  of  the  sixth  century. 

There  was,  however,  still  a  considerable  interval 
before  the  story  passed  into  the  chronicles,  and  from 
them  into  ecclesiastical  literature  generally.  Isidore 
adhered  to  the  historical  version  of  the  matter,  and 
Fredegar  also  (A.D.  658)  remained  still  true  to  the 
genuine  account.     Gregory^  of  Tours  (died  A.D.  598) 

1  [In  two  of  his  throe  accounts  of  the  baptism  ofClovisby  St. 
Kcmigius,  eg  :  "  Procidit  novus  Constantinus  atl  hivacrum,  iiolc- 
"  turus  Icpne  veteris  morbuni,"  &c.  In  the  magnificent  new  edition 
of  the  Recueil  dea  Ilittoriem  del  Gaul,  a  el  de  la  I  ranee  (I'aimc,  I'uiis, 


94    CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER. 

already  alludes  to  the  fable,  and  Bede  (in  the  year 
729)  is,  properly  speaking,  the  first  who,  by  means  of 
his  chronicle,  prepared  the  way  for  the  introduction 
of  the  story  of  Constantine's  baptism  in  Rome  into 
the  annals  of  the  West ;  ^  nevertheless  he  did  not 
succeed  for  some  time  longer.  Frekulf  (about  the 
year  840),  who  holds  fast  to  good  authorities  in  his 
Universal  History,  abides  by  a  baptism  in  Nicomedia 
at  the  end  of  the  emperor's  life.  Even  the  painstaking 
Hermann  the  Lame  of  Reichenau  (about  A.D.  1050) 
seems  to  know  nothing  of  the  fable,  and  his  contem- 
porary, Marianus  Scotus,  who  follows  Jerome  as  an 
authority,  has  still  the  correct  version.  ^ 

18G9)  there  is  the  following  interesting  note,  in  loco:  "  Colb.  ad 
"  Marginem  ha!C  habet,  ab  annis  circ.  400  addita.,  Ecce  iste  Ilistorio- 
'  graphus  concordat  cum  Ilisloria  St.  Sylvestri  de  leprcl  Constantin* 
"  mundatd  infonte  baptismi.  Et  qnidem  certiim  videtur  ex  hoc  locoj 
'•'  ubi  etiam  Chlodoveus  Constsmtino  et  sanotus  Ilemigiiis  beato 
"  Sylvestro  comparantur,  tunc  temporis  jam  invaluisse  opinionem  do 
"baptlzato  Romaj  Constantino  per  beatum  Sylvestrum,  lepraque  ejus 
"  mundata  "     But  in  cod.  Reg.  this  passage  is  left  blank.] 

1  Venerabilis  Bedas  Opera  Historica  Minora,  cd.  Stephenson,  Lon- 
don, 1841,  p.  81.  [Bedc  does  not  dwell  on  the  supposed  event ;  ho 
mentions  it  merely  in  passing.  "  Constantinus  fecit  Romx,  ubf 
"  laplizatus  est,  basilicam  beati  Joannis  Baptistas,  qufe  appellata  est 
<'Constantiniana:  item  basilicam  beato  Petro  in  templo  Apollinis, 
"  nee  non  et  beato  Paulo,  corpus  utriusque  aire  Cyprio  circumdans  v 
"  pedes  grosso,"  &c.] 

2  The  reading  "  rel)ai)tizatus "  instead  of  "  baptizatus "  in  a 
manuscript  of  Gemblours,  on  wliich  Schelstrate  lays  great  stress,  ia 
manifestly  the  correction  of  a  copyist  who  believed  in  the  baptism 
at  liome. 


CONSTANTTNE  AND  SYLVESTER.    95 

For  the  majority,  however,  the  authority  of  the 
L  iber  Pontificalis,  the  Roman  biographies  of  the  popes, 
was  irresistible.  The  fable  of  the  baptism  in  Rome 
had  already  passed  into  the  oldest  list  of  the  popes, 
one  reaching  back  to  the  sixth  century  and  in  like 
manner  into  the  enlarged  collection  which  was  based 
upon  this  one,  the  so-called  Anastasius.  In  like 
manner  Ado  (died  A.D.  875)  inserts  in  his  universal 
chronicle,  which  i§  based  upon  Bcde,  the  fable  of 
Constantine  having  been  baptized  in  Rome,  being 
misled  by  Bede,  and  by  th^  Liber  Pontificalis.  He 
betrays  the  latter  source  by  the  long  list  of  ecclesias- 
tical donations  and  buildings,  which  Constantine  is 
said  to  have  ordered  in  Rome,  and  which  Ado  bor- 
rowed from  that  Roman  chronicle  of  the  popes.  On 
the  other  hand,  Ordericus  Vitalis  (about  A.  D.  1107), 
and  Hugo  of  Fleury  (in  the  year  1109),  who  in  their 
ecclesiastical  works  narrate  the  whole  fable, — leprosy, 
bath  of  children's  blood  and  all — have  drawn  directly 
or  indirectly  from  the  legend  of  Sylvester  ;  while  Otto 
of  Freysing,  though  he  declares  these  details  to  be 
apocryphal,  nevertheless  holds  fast  to  the  baptism  in 
Rome  by  Sylvester,  '*  in  accordance  with  the  Roman 
"  tradition,"  as  he  says. 

The  first  critical  attempt  to  remove  the  contradic- 
tion between  the  old  and  new  versions  of  the  story 


96    CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER. 

was  made  about  the  year  iioo  by  Eccard,  a  monk 
in  the  monastery  of  Michaelsberg,  and  from  iioS 
onwards  abbot  of  the  monastery  of  Aurach.  The 
means  which  he  employed  were  these.  He  trans- 
ferred the  outrageous  cruelty  of  Constantino,  the 
execution  of  his  nephew,  of  his  son,  his  wife,  and 
many  friends,  to  the  earlier  part  of  the  emperor's 
reign,  after  his  victory  over  Licinus.  Thereupon  the 
Cassar  is  struck  by  God  with  leprosy,  but  baptized  by 
Sylvester.  He  says,  in  conclusion  :  "  Some  persons 
*'  maintain  that  Constantine  fell  into  the  Arian  heresy, 
"  and  was  rebaptized  by  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia.  The 
"  church  histories,  however  (that  of  Eusebius,  namely, 
*'  of  which  Eccard  made  much  use),  do  not  state  this, 
"  but  that  he  died  in  great  sanctity."  Eccard,  there- 
fore, understood  the  version  of  Jerome  to  relate  to  a 
second  baptism,  by  means  of  which  Constantino  got 
himself  received  into  the  sect  of  the  Arians, — a  means 
of  getting  out  of  the  difficulty  at  which  many  since 
Eccard  have  caught.  Nevertheless  the  author  of  the 
Magdeburg  1  Annals  (written  in  the  year  1175),  a 
monk  in  the  monastery  of  Bergen,  near  Magdeburg, 
does  not  allow  himself  to  be  misled  by  the  authority 
of  Eccard,  whom  he  otherwise  uses  as  his  basis.     He 

1  Formerly  known  as  Chronographus  Sazo;  now  as  Annales  Mag- 
dtburg.,  in  Pertz's  collection,  xvi.,  p.  119. 


.CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER.    97 

remains  true  to  the  version  of  the  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory (the  Tripartita),  that  Constantine  put  off  his 
baptism  till  the  end  of  his  life. 

Another  variation  is  tried  by  the  Italians,  under 
the  leadership  of  Bonizo,  bishop  of  Sutri,  and  sub- 
sequently of  Piacenza  (died  A.D.  1089),  an  authority 
not  used  by  the  Germans,  In  his  history  of  the 
popes,  2  Bonizo  had  to  choose  between  three  accounts 
of  Constantine's  baptism.  That  is  to  say,  besides  the 
two  ordinary  accounts,  he  had  also  before  him  the 
one  contained  in  a  spurious  decretal  of  pope  Euscbius, 
now  no  longer  extant,  stating  that  this  pope  (and 
therefore  in  the  year  310'')  had  already  instructed, 
and  baptized  the  emperor.  The  decretal  was,  of 
course,  pure  intention,  in  order  that,  by  changing  the 
Nicomedian  into  the  Roman  Euscbius,  support  might 
be  got  for  the  theory  of  Constantine's  baptism  in 
Rome,  a  theory  of  immense  importance  to  the 
Romans.  Bonizo  will  only  allow  the  first  half  of  the 
statement,  considers  the  "  baptizatum,"  as  a  vitiuvi 
scriptorinn,  and  gives  it  as  his  opinion,  that  after  the 
instruction  which  he  had  received  in  Rome,  Con- 
stantine postponed    baptism  on  account  01   the  dis- 

2  It  is  found  in  the  fotirth  book  of  his  Libri  Deereti,  whence  M;ii 
gives  it  in  the  Nova  Bibliotheca  Patnim,  vi!.,  P.  3,  p.  39. 

3  [The  pajmcy  of  Euscbius  falls  wholly  within  the  year  SlO.j 


98     CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER. 

tracting  cares  of  government,  receiving  it  at  the 
hands  of  Sylvester,  and  not  before.  But  he  wholly 
denies  the  statement  in  the  Tripartita  Historia,  that 
he  was  not  baptized  until  the  end  of  his  life,  and  then 
into  the  Arian  faith.  None  but  a  maniac  could 
believe  that,  after  the  council  of  Nicsea,  and  after  the 
circumstances  of  Arius'  death,  of  which  the  emperor 
had  been  a  witness,  he  still  could  have  lapsed  into 
Arianism,  Bonizo  goes  so  far  as  to  claim  the 
authority  of  the  whole  Church  in  favour  of  his 
opinion.  "  That  Constantino  was  baptized  by 
"  Sylvester,"  he  says,  "  is  the  undoubting  belief  of 
"  the  Catholic  Church."  And  the  Italian  chroniclers 
of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  Sicard  ^ , 
bishop  of  Cremona,  and  Romnald,  ^  of  Salerno,  have 
copied  him  in  this,  the  latter  word  for  word.  On  the 
other  hand,  Gotfried  of  Viterbo,  in  his  PantJicon, 
undismayed  by  the  "  mcnte  captus"  of  Bonizo,  avails 
himself  of  the  hypothesis  of  an  Arian  re-baptism  in 
Nicomedia.  In  this  bishop  Anselm  of  Havelbcrg 
(about  the  year  1187)  had  already  preceded  him  in 
his  dialogues  against  the  Greeks."^  Anselm  was  misled 
by  another  apocryphal  writing,  viz.,  a  spurious 
History  of  Popc^  Sylvester,  forged    under  the  name 

!      1  IMiinitori,  6\S'.,  vii.,  r,.").").  2  Thid,  vii.,  78. 

3  J II  D'Archi'i-y's  Sp-cile^jium,  nov.  edit.,  i,  207. 

4  It  cvibts  iu  mauu.script,  according  to  D'Achcry,  in  the  library 


CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER.    99 

of  Euscbius  of  Caesarea,  and  differing  from  the 
legend. 

Of  great  influence  in  the  matter  was  the  additional 
fact,  that  the  popes  also  themselves  made  use  of 
the  apocryphal  legend  of  Sylvester,  and  maintained 
Constantinc's  baptism  at  Rome  as  historical.  Hadrian 
I.,  in  the  letter  which  was  read  at  the  second  council  of 
Nicaja,  A.D.  yZy,  quoted  a  long  passage  out  of  the 
legend  as  evidence  of  the  primitive  use  of  images.  ^ 
Nicolas  I.  (858-867)  cited  a  supposed  passage  from  a 
pseudo-Isidorian  letter  which  bore  the  name  of 
Sylvester,  with  the  distinctive  title  "  Magni  Con- 
stantini  baptizator."  ^  Leo  IX.,  also,  in  the  con- 
troversy with  the  Patriarch  Cairularius,  laid  stress  on 

of  St.  Germain.  Ratraninn.s  (in  D'Achery,  1.  c,  p.  100)  quotes  a 
pas.sago  from  it.  It  seems  to  liavo  b^'cn  forgL-d,  in  order  to  defend 
Boman  claims  and  customs  against  the  objections  of  the  Greeks 

1  In  Ilarduin,  iv.,  82  [Tlio  gist  of  it  i.s  this.  The  apostles 
Potor  and  Paul  appr^ar  to  Constantino,  and  tell  him  to  abandon  the 
idea  of  the  bath  of  blooil,  and  seek  ont  Sylvester  in  his  exile  on  Mt. 
Soracte;  he  will  cure  the  emperor  of  his  leprosy.  Constaatine  goes 
to  Sylvester,  who  produces  injagesof  SS.  Peter  and  Paul,  in  order  to 
prove  to  the  emperor  that  the  two  wlio  appeared  to  him  in  the 
vision  were  not  gods,  but  these  two  apostles.  Constantino  recognises 
the  likeness,  is  convinced  and  baptized,  and  proceeds  to  build  and 
restore  churches,  which  he  takes  care  to  adorn  with  images  Cora- 
pare  the  curious  and  very  different  version  of  the  story  given  in  the 
Ubn  Romx  Mirabdia,  reprinted  from  the  Vatican  manusciipls  by 
Gustav  Parlhey,  Berlin,  18G;'.J 

2  Ibid  ,  T.,  144. 


100    CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER. 

the  fact  that    Constantine  was  the   spiritual  son   of 
Sylvester  by  baptism. ^ 

Among  the  Greeks,  Johannes  Malalas,  at  Antioch, 
is  the  first  who  accepted  the  Roman  baptism  of 
Constantine  2  He  lived  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  century, 
and  was  certainly  one  of  the  least  intelligent,  and 
most  prolific  in  fables,  of  all  the  Byzantine  annalists. 
His  authority  may  possibly  have  been  the  Greek 
translation  of  the  legend  of  Sylvester,  which  had 
recently  been  made.  It  is  true  that  he  did  not 
accomplish  much  in  the  way  of  introducing  the  fable, 
because  his  own  work  was  not  very  widely  dis- 
seminated. But  seeing  that  Constantine  was  honored 
in  the  Greek  Church  as  a  saint,  and  that  his  festival 
was  yearly  celebrated  on  the  2ist  of  May,  with  the 
greatest  ^  solemnity,  especially  in  Constantinople,  it 
gradually  came  to  appear  quite  inconceivable  to  the 
Greeks,  that  he  should,  of  his  own  accord,  have 
remained  all  his  life  outside  the  pale  of  the  Church, 
and  should  not  have  received  baptism  till  he  was  on 
his  death-bed.  ^    Accordingly  we    find  an  author  as 

1  Harduin,  vi.,  933 

2  Ed   Dindorf,  p.  317 

3  Bolland,  ad  21  Mai,  p.  13,  14. 

4  [In  Constantinj's  own  aj^e  it  was  probal)ly  too  common  a  case 
to  inovoki;  fitli'T  Hurprise  or  censure.  A  century  later  we  find  St 
Ambrose  aud  bt.  Augustine  postponing  the  reception   of  baptism 


CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER.    loi 

early  as  the  abbot  Thcophanes  (died  A.D.  817)  setting 
the  Anatoh"an  theory  of  the  baptism  in  Nicomedia, 
by  Eusebius,  in  opposition  to  the  Roman  theory  of 
the  baptism  of  Sylvester,  but  forthwith  declaring^  that 
he  considered  the  Roman  account  as  the  more  correct ; 
for,  of  course,  Constantine,  if  unbaptized,  could  not 
have  taken  his  seat  with  the  fathers  at  Nica;a,  and 
could  not  have  taken  part  in  the  sacred  mysteries :  to 
assert  or  suppose  that  he  could,  was  to  the  last  degree 
absurd.^  Accordingly,  if  even  the  B)'zantines,  as 
early  as  the  ninth  century,  had  become  so  unfamiliar 
with  the  circumstances  and  true  history  of  the  fourth 
century,  it  cannot  excite  wonder  that  the  later  Greek 
historians  should  have  considered  the  incorrect  account 
as  an  established  fact.  And  this  is  the  case  with  tlic 
lately  published  Theodosius  Melitenus,  ^  Cedrcnus, 
also  Zonaras,  Georgius  Ilamartolus,  Glycas,  and 
Nicephorus  Callistus. 

Seeing,  then,  that  all  the  chronicles  of  the  popes 
subsequent  to  the  Liber  Pontijicalis,  and  based  upon 
it,  relate  the  baptism  of  Constantine  at  Rome,  and 
that  Martinus  Polonus,  with  his  predilection  for  what 

till  thoy  were  over  thirty  yonrs  of  .iijo,  lonjj  after  thf'y  wore  con- 
vinctd  of  tlij  truth  of  Chrisliauity.  Slaiiky's  A'utiern  Church.  Lcct. 
vi.,  sub  fin.] 

1  Ed.  Classen,  i.,  25. 

2  Chronographia,  cd.  Tafel.,  .Monachii,  1859,  p.  61. 


102    CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER. 

is  fantastic  and  distorted,  has  imported  the  Gcsta 
Silvestri  with  its  whole  tissue  of  fables  into  his 
standard  work,  the  fable  maintained  itself  in  un- 
questioned sovereignty  throughout  the  Middle  Ages  ; 
until,  with  the  re-awakening  of  the  knowledge  of  the 
Greek  language  and  literature,  and  of  the  critical 
historic  sense,  the  two  most  advanced  spirits  of  their 
age,  ^neas  Sylvius  and  Nicolas  of  Cusa,  recognised 
the  truth.  ^  Nevertheless  it  needed  still  two  centuries 
and  more,  before  the  powerful  authorities  which  gave 
support  to  the  fable  were  demolished.  All  the 
canonists  kept  fast  to  the  theory  of  a  Roman  baptism 
for  some  time  longer,  for  in  the  collections  of  canons 
by  Anselm  and  Deusdedit,  and,  above  all,  in  the 
Dccrctum  of  Gratian  (here  indeed  marked  as  "pa/ca," 
that  is,  as  a  later  insertion),  bits  out  of  the  Gcsta 
Silvestri  found  a  place,  and  these  presupposed  the 
truth  of  the  statement  respecting  the  emperor's 
baptism.  Hence  the  Cardinals  Jacobazzi,  Reginald 
Pole,  Baronius,  Bellarmine,  and  in  later  times  even 
Ciampini  himself,  and  Schelstrate,  still  continued  to 
defend  the  theory  of  a  baptism  in  Rome,  sometimes 
again  taking  refuge  in  the  desperate  resource  of  an 
Arian   re-baptism.     It   was   the   profound   erudition 

1  Opera,  Basil.,  1551,  p.  338. 


CONSTANTINE  AND  SYLVESTER.    103 

and  historical  criticism  of  French  theologians  which 
first  enabled  truth  to  win  a  complete  victory. 

Besides  all  this,  the  legend  of  Sylvester  was 
welcome  material  for  the  poetry  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  venomous  dragon,  the  disputation  with  the  Jews, 
the  slain  ox,  the  emperor's  leprosy,  and  its  healing — • 
all  this  is  picturesquely  described  in  the  Kaiscrchronik, 
but  with  the  greatest  elaboration  in  the  poem  Sylvester, 
by  Conrad  of  Wiirzburg.  The  Lackcnspicghcl  of  Jan 
de  Clerc,  and  the  versified  legends  of  the  saints,  avail 
themselves  of  it  in  like  manner;  and  even  Wolfram  of 
Eschenbach  alludes  in  the  Parzival  to  the  miracle  of 
the  ox  raised  to  life  again. 

[The  exploded  falsehood  still  lives  on  in  that 
museum  of  exploded  falsehoods — Rome,  On  the 
base  of  the  ancient  obelisk  which  adorns  the  piazza 
of  St.  John  Latcran,  an  inscription  in  large  capitals 
still  states — 

CONSTANTINVS 

PER  CRVCEM   VICTOR 

A  S.  SILVESTRO    HIC 

BAPTIZATVS 

CRVCIS   GLORIAM 

PROPAGAVIT; 

and  the  custodc  of  the  Baptistery  Is  still  allowed  to 
tell  all  visitors,  that  in  that  building  pope  Sylvester 
baptized  the  emperor.] 


V.  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

The  Liber  Pontificalis  enumerates  a  quantity  of 
houses  and  pieces  of  land  in  various  places,  which 
Constantine  is  said  to  have  given  to  the  Church  of 
Rome.  The  source  alone  renders  these  donations 
suspicious,  one  which  has  made  such  abundant  use  of 
the  fictions  of  the  age  of  Symmachus.  And  the 
suspicion  increases  when  one  remarks  that  so 
enormous  a  number  of  donations  are  attributed  to 
Constantine  alone,  while  the  book  does  not  mention 
a  single  other  donation  of  any  of  the  emperors  who 
follow,  until  Justin  and  Justinian  in  the  sixth  century; 
and  they  are  said  to  have  given  nothing  more  than 
cups  and  vessels.  In  addition  to  this  there  is  the 
silence  of  all  contemporary  writers,  and  the  circum- 
stance that  Constantine,  liberal  as  he  proved  himself 
towards  the  Church,  nevertheless,  according  to  all 
accounts,  never  gave  lands,  but  only  made  over  to  it 
rents  or  sums  of  money.  Accordingly  the  author  of 
the  Vita  Silvcstri  in  the  Liber  Pontificalis  appears  to 
have  attributed  the  whole  amount  of  property,  which 
had  been  gradually  inherited  or  occupied,  just  as  it 
existed  in  his  own  day  (that  is  in  the  seventh  or 
eighth   century),    exclusively   to   donations  of  Con- 

104 


THE  DONA  TION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  105 

stantine.  Indeed  Assemani  says  that  Hadrian  I. 
ceitainly  had  documents  of  the  donation  of  Con- 
stantinc  before  him,  for  in  his  letter  to  Charlemagne 
in  the  year  775  he  appeals  to  such  as  existing  in  the 
archives  of  the  Vatican.  However,  if  one  looks  closer, 
Hadrian  is  speaking  of  donations  in  Tuscany,  Spoleto, 
etc.,  which  various  emperors,  patricians,  and  other 
pious  persons  had  made  to  St.  Peter  and  the  Roman 
Church,  but  which  the  Lombards  had  taken  away 
from  it ;  respecting  these  there  are  several  docu- 
ments ^  still  extant.  Christian  Lupus  already  remarks 
that  Ammianus  Marcellinus,  up  to  the  year  Ttjo, 
knows  only  of  one  source  of  papal  property,  viz.,  the 
offerings  of  matrons  ;  and  that,  accordingly,  the 
Roman  Church  at  that  time  was  not  yet  in  possession 
of  large  and  rich  patrimonies,  ^ 

Until  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  there  is  not 
a  trace  to  be  found  of  the  Donation  which  has  since 
become  so  famous,  by  virtue  of  which  Constantine, 
immediately  after  his  baptism,  and  to  show  his 
gratitude  for  the  cure  wrought  by  Sylvester,  gave  to 

1  Ilal.  Ilistorist  Sen'plorea  Illuttr.,  iii.,  328.  The  statement  of 
Gfrorer  is  misleading  (^Gregor  VII.,  vol.  v.,  p.  6).  He  says  that 
Baronius  has  "published  several  documents,  by  means  of  which 
Constantine  conferred  houses,  lands,  &c.,  on  the  three  chief  basilicas 
of  Rome  "  What  Baronius  did  was  merely  to  print  the  passagea 
from  the  Liber  Poniijica'is. 

2  Synodorum  Oerur.  Zf<crela,  ic,  Bruiell,  1671.  iv.,  397. 


io6  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

this  pope  and  his  successors,  a  number  of  the  most 
comprehensive  ecclesiastical  and  civil  rights,  and  to 
the  Roman  clergy  many  honourable  privileges,  and, 
moreover,  made  over  Rome  and  Italy  to  the  pope. 

Here,  then,  at  the  outset  we  have  these  two  ques- 
tions to  answer.  Where  and  when  was  this  document 
forged  ? 

We  have  it  both  in  Latin  ^  and  in  Greek.     It  does 

1  ["There  is  one  old  Latin  text  of  it,  but  four  Greek  texts.  See 
F.  A.  Bicaer,  De  coUeclionibus  cann.  JEcclesix  Groacsp,  Berol.,  1827,  8, 
p.  72,  ss.  The  first  alone  is  of  liistorical  importance,  being  found  in 
the  pseudo-Isidorian  decretals  undor  the  title  of  Edictuin  domini 
Constant  ni  Imp ,  and  extracts  from  it  in  the  Decret.  Gratiani  dis'., 
xcvi.,  0.  13."  Gieseler,  Church  IIist'Tij,  ii ,  117,  24i>,  35G  ;  New  York 
edition.  In  the  first  letter  of  Hadrian  I.  to  Charles  the  Great,  a.d.  77 
(^Cod  Carol ,  Xo.  49),  occurs  the  following  :  "  Et  sicuttemporibus  b. 
"  Sylvestri  Rom  Pont,  a  sanctiB  recordationis  piissimo  Constantino 
"  il  Imperatore  per  ejus  largitatem  sancta  Dei  catholica  et  apostolica 
"  Romana  ecclesia  elevata  atque  cxaltata  est,  et  pot  slatem  in  his 
"  Ilesperise  parlibua  largiri  dignatus  est;  ita  et  in  his  vestrls 
"  folicissimis  temporibus,  atque  nostrls  S.  Dei  Ecclesia,  i.e.,  b. 
"  Petri  Apostoli,  germinct  atque  exultet :  quia  ecce  novus  christianis- 
"  simus  Dei  Constantinus  Impcrator  his  temporibus  surrexit,  per 
"  quera  omnia  Deus  sanctaj  sua;  Ecclesias  bb.  Apostolorum  princi])is 
"  Petri  largiri  dignatus  est.  Sed  ct  cunctii  alia,  qua;  per  diversos 
"  Imperatores,  Putriclos  ctiam  et  alios  Deum  timentes,  pro  corura 
"  aninia;  mercede  et  venia  delictorum — b  Pctro  Apostolo— conces.sa 
"sunt,  et  per  nefandam  gentem  Langobardorum  per  annoriim 
"  si)atia,  abstracta  atque  ablata  sunt,  vestris  tomjjoribus  rcstituantur. 
"  Unde  ct  plures  donationes  in  sacro  nostro  scrinio  Lateranensi 
"  reconditas  habemus,"  &c.  Some  think  that  we  have  here  au 
allusion  to  the  donation  of  Constantino,  e.g.  de  Marca  {De  Cone. 
Sac,  iii.,  12),  according  to  whom  the  Donation  was  forged,  a.d.  7G7, 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  107 

not  exist  in  the  more  ancient  manuscripts  of  the 
lej^end  of  Sylvester,  nor  in  the  more  ancient  copies  of 
the  Liber  Pontificalis  \  later  on,  however,  it  has  been 
inserted  into  both.  But  it  is  certainly  to  be  found  as 
early  as  the  most  ancient  manuscripts  of  the  pseudo- 
Isidore  collection,  and  was  therefore  at  any  rate  com- 
posed before  the  year  850. 

That  the  Donation  was  a  fiction  of  the  Greeks, 
composed  in  Greek,  and  brought  from  the  East  to 
Rome,  was  indeed  long,  ago  maintained  by  Baronius. 
Next  Bianchi  ^  undertook  to  defend  this  view,  on  no 
better  grounds,  however,  than  the  weak  allegation, 
that  is  to  be  found  in  Balsamon  ;  and,  lately, 
Richter  ^  also  has  given  as  his  opinion  that  it  pro- 
bably originated  in  Greece.  But  from  the  Greek 
text,  as  well  as  from  the  contents  of  the  document 
itself,  the  very  opposite  of  this  can  be  demonstrated 
to  a  certainty. 

At  the  very  beginning  of  it  Constantine  speaks  of 

*' juRsn  Rom.inonim  PontifT:  pia  qnadam  industria."  Ccnni,  on  the  con- 
trary, shows  (MoHum.  iJomin.  I'ontilT.,  i.,  301)  that  Iladiian  has  in  view 
only  tlio  Acti  Stlvestri,  to  which  ho  also  rofiTs  in  his  letter  to  Con- 
sUiiitine  and  Irene,  and  whi(  h  in  part  sii_;^;;ested  the  later  donation 
of  ConsUintint;.  The  words  "  potestatcin  in  his  Ilespcriaj  partihus 
lar;;iri  di^'natus  est''  are  especially  remarkable  in  this  connexion. 
Gics.ler,  vol.  ii.,  ch.  2  §  5.] 

1  Delia  podest(i  e  polizia  delta  ehiesa,  v.,  p.  1,  209. 

2  K  rchenrecht,  fifth  edition,  p.  77, 


io8  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

his  "satraps,"  whom  he  places  before  the  senate  and 
the  "archons"  (optimates).  This  expression  does  not 
occur  in  the  Byzantines,  but  was  of  common  use  in 
Rome  and  with  western  writers  ;  for  instance  in  the 
letter  of  pope  Paul  I.  to  Pepin  i  [a.D.,  757],  and  in  a 
document  of  king  Ethelred,  for  Ealdorman.  Moreover, 
the  Greek  translator  has  either  read  incorrectly  or 
not  understood  the  expression  in  the  Latin,  that  "the 
"  emperor  had  chosen  St.  Peter  and  his  successors  as 
"sure  'patroni'  before  God;"  that  is  to  say,  he 
turns  "  firmos  apud  Dcum  patronos"  into  "  primos 
"  apud    Deum    patres,"    for    he    absurdly    translates 

"  npuTovQ  Tzpbg  tuv  Oioj'  Trarfpac;.     " 

Again,  if  a  Greek  had  composed  the  document, 
he  would  certainly,  in  mentioning  the  four  Oriental 

1  "  Duccm  Spolotinum  cum  ejus  Satrapibiis."  In  Cenni,  3fo- 
numenta,  i.,  154.  In  like  manner  Kinj^  Lnitprand  sunds,  "Duces 
ct  Salrapas  suos."  Lib.  Ponlif.  cd.  Vignoli,  ii  ,  63.  [Xot  PaiiTa 
first  letter  to  Popin,  in  wliich  ho  announces  lii.s  cL'ction  to  the 
papacy  as  successor  to  his  brother  Stephen  (for  the  election 
bad  been  contested  in  favour  of  the  Archdeacon  Theophylact),  but 
the  second,  in  which  he  complains  that  the  promised  territory  has 
not  been  ceded  to  the  pii)al  see.  Ealdorman,  i.e.,  governor  of  a 
county,  later  earl.  The  history  of  the  word  is  a  curious  one,  sup- 
j)lantcd  in  its  honourable  meaning  ])y  (he  Danish  "earl,"  living  on 
itself  as  the  less  honourable  "aldermen  "1 

2  From  the  addition  ko).  th(prvfTijfinc  we  may  be  tolerably  certain 
that,  in  the  Latin  original  used  by  the  translator,  "patronos  et 
"  de/ensorcs"  was  the  reading. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  109 

"  Thrones,"  have  placed  Constantinople  not  last,  but 
first.  Kowhcre  but  in  Rome  would  Constantinople 
have  been  mentioned  last,  for  there,  down  to  the 
time  of  Innocent  III.,  recognition  was  persistently- 
refused  to  the  canons  of  the  second  and  fourth 
general  councils  which  settle  the  order  of  precedence 
for  the  patriarchates.  On  the  other  hand,  the 
Byzantine  tendencies  of  the  translator  are  shown  in 
that,  though  he  retains  the  expression  about  the 
Lateran  palace,  "  that  it  surpasses  all  palaces  in  the 
"  whole  world,"  he  nevertheless  omits  the  distinction 
given  to  the  Lateran  cJuircJi,  that  it  is  accounted 
"  caput  et  vertex  omnium  ecclcsiarum  in  univcrso 
"  orbe  terrarum."  Equally  characteristic  is  it  that  the 
passage  about  the  possessions  in  Judaea,  Asia,  Greece, 
Africa,  S:c.,  which  Constantine  gives  "  pro  con- 
"  cinnatione  luminarium"  in  the  Roman  churches, 
is  left  out  in  the  Greek  version,  and  the  words 
"  summus  Pontifcx  et  universalis  urbis  Romac  Papa," 
are  merely  rendered  "rv//f>d?.(j>  iTTiaKdzif)  Kni  koOo'/ukj  -dn-n," 
Thus  the  title  o\KovuEvtK<'>r,  which  had  been  assumed  by 
the  patriarchs  of  Constantinople,  and  which  would 
correspond  far  better  than  KaOo?.iK6c  to  Jinivcrsalis,  is 
avoided  no  doubt  intentionally,  so  that  the  whole  title, 
according   to   the  language    in   use  in    the    Oriental 

Church,  might  have  been  applied  equally  well  to  the 

10 


no  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

bishop  of  Alexandria,  who  was  also  called  irarra ,  ^  as 
to  the  bishop  of  Rome. 

Further  on  we  meet  with  a  word  never  used  by  any- 
Greek  author  with  whom  I  am  acquainted,  Ko'vvcov7jii 
for  consuls,  with  the  usual  word  ma-oi.  merely  inserted 
alongside  as  explanatory.  This  can  only  be  explained 
on  the  supposition  that  the  text  is  a  translation.  And 
here  the  Greek  text  itself  affords  palpable  evidence 
of  a  distorting  of  the  original  in  a  way  which  betrays 
the  unlearned  translator.     The  original  ordains  that 

1  \Tzatzaq  or  Trairn,  Papa,  was  originally  a  general  name  for  all 
Greek  presbyters  and  Latin  bishops  ;  but  from  an  early  age  it  was 
the  special  address  which,  long  before  the  name  of  a  patriarch  or 
arclibi.^hfip,  was  given  to  the  bishop  of  Alexandria.  "  Pope  of  Alex- 
"  andria"  was  a  well-known  dignity  centuries  before  the  bishops  of 
Rome  claimed  an  exclusive  right  to  the  title  of  pope.  This  was 
first  done  by  Gregory  VII.,  in  a  Council  held  at  Rome  in  1076. 
Stiinley  (Eastern  Church,  p.  113)  gives  the  following  curious  ex- 
planation of  tlie  name  :  "  Down  to  Heraclas  (a.d.  230),  tiie  bislK)p  of 
'  Alexandria,  being  the  sole  Egyptian  bishop,  was  called  '  Abba' 
'  (father),  and  his  clergy  '  Elders.'  From  his  time  more  bishops 
'  were  created,  who  then  received  the  name  of  '  Abba,'  and  con- 
'  seqnently  the  name  of  'Papa'  (ab-aba,  pater  patrnm,  grandfather) 
'  was  appropriated  to  the  Primate.  The  Roman  account  (inconsistent 
'  with  facts)  is  that  the  name  was  fir.st  giv(,'n  to  Cyril,  as  re|)resent- 
'  ing  the  bishop  of  Rome  in  the  council  of  Ephesus  (Suicer,  in 
'  voce)  "  He  then  adds  other  fantastic  exi)lanations  :  "  1  Poppxa, 
'  from  the  short  life  of  each  pope  ;  2.  I'a,  for  Pater;  3.  Pap,  suck  ; 
'  4.  Pnp,  brea.st;  5.  Pa  (Paul),  Pe  (Peter)  ;  G.  Trairal\  (admiration); 
'  7.  Pap  A,  keeper  (Oscan) ;  8.  J'appaa,  chief  slave  ;  9.  y'a(ter) 
'  /'«(tri;c) ;  10  J'a,  sound  of  a  father's  ki.ss.  Sec  Abraliam 
'  Echellensis,  De  Oriyine  Norn.  PapoR,  60.  It  is  a  little  difficult  to 
believe  that  all  of  these  are  serious." 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  in 

the  Koman  clergy  shall  have  the  same  privileges  as 
the  imperial  senate,  namely,  that  its  members  become 
patricians  and  consuls,  and  so  can  attain  to  the  very 
highest  honours  which  the  Byzantine  kingdom  has  to 
bestow.  Instead  of  this  object,  which  expresses  a 
wish  of  the  Roman  clergy,  quite  natural  and  not  un- 
attainable under  the  circumstances  of  the  time,  the 
Greek  text  represents  the  emperor  as  making  an 
enactment,  the  realisation  of  which  no  one  could  have 
seriously  expected,  namely,  that  to  the  Roman  clergy 
generally  should  be  attributed  that  pre-eminence  and 
greatness,  which  the  great  senate,  or  the  patricians, 
consuls,  and  other  dignitaries  possessed.  Last  of  all 
comes  the  story  that  Constantinc,  holding  the  reins 
of  Sylvester's  horse,  had  performed  the  office  of  groom 
to  Sylvester  {(jvparupo^  ixpipiKtov  iTToa'/aafiev)^  a  story  which, 
both  in  its  wording  and  circumstances,  is  unmis- 
takeably  of  western  growth,  alike  foreign  to  oriental 
customs  and  oriental  sentiment.  This  thing  occurs 
for  the  first  time  in  the  year  754,  when  Pepin  showed 
this  mark  of  respect  to  Stephen  III.,  who  had  come 
to  visit  him.  ^  This  act  caused  such  great  satisfaction 
in  Rome,  that  it  was  forthwith  transferred  to  Con- 
stantinc, and  made  into  a  pattern  and  rule  for  kings 
and  emperors. 

1  "  Vice  stratoris  nsqiK^  in  aliqn.intnm  loci  juxta  ejus  scUarem 
"  properavit.'' — Vtla  iScejjh.  in  Vigayli,  ii.,  104. 


112  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

The  chief  passage  in  the  document,  the  cession  of 
Rome  and  Italy  or  of  the  western  regions  to  the  pope, 
is  correctly  rendered  in  the  text  as  given  by  Balsamon. 
On  the  other  hand,  it  is  wanting  in  other  Greek 
recensions,  especially  in  the  one  by  Matthew  Bias- 
tares  ^  (about  1335),  and  in  others  given  by  Bou- 
langer  and  Fabricius,^  from  a  Parisian  manuscript. 

This  is  not  hard  to  explain.  The  fictitious  Dona- 
tion has  acquired  a  high  canonical  authority  among 
the  Greeks.  Since  Balsamon's  time  it  has  taken  its 
place  among  a  mass  of  manuscripts  respecting  Greek 
ecclesiastical  rights ;  ^  and  Greek  eyes,  usually  so 
keensighted  for  the  discovery  of  Latin  forgeries,  were 
in  this  case  so  blinded,  that  they  readily  accepted  the 
palpable  forgery,  and  set  to  work  to  make  capital  out 
of  it  in  practice.  Blastares  quite  goes  into  raptures 
over  it.     "  Nothing  more  pious  or  more  worthy  of 

1  Bevcridge,  Pandectse  Canonnm,  i.,  p.  2,  p.  117.  But  (ho  Latin 
translator  has  made  a  hmghable  perversion  of  (he  sense,  making  (he 
emperor  say,  "  Placuit  lit  Papa  ab  urbc  Koma  ct  occidentalibus 
"  omnibus  provinciis  et  urbibus  cxirct." 

2  Biblioth.  Gr.  cd.  nov.  vi.,  G99. 

3  Tht-y  are  for  the  most  part  enumerated  in  Biener  De  Collectioiii- 
hun  Canonum  Eccles.  Groccce,  1827,  p.  79.  In  the  Vienna  Codex, 
■wliich  Lambecius  describes  Comment.^  lib.  viii.,  p.  1019,  nov.  ed., 
the  remark  is  added  ira/je^t^/J/Oij  dirb  tuv  dyvturaTov  irarpinfixo"  K'.n'- 
cravTiviiviroAcur  ki'/)i)v  (^xjtIov  ravra.  A  man  so  well  read  as  riiotiua 
in  literature  and  history,  of  course  perceived  not  only  the  unau- 
theuticity  of  the  document,  but  also  the  object  of  the  fiction. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  113 

*'  reverence  is  to  be  seen  anywhere,"  he  says,  "  nothing 
"  which  better  deserves  to  be  proclaimed  far  and 
"  wide,"  This  satisfaction  rested  on  a  very  simple 
calculation.  The  canon  of  the  second  CECumenical 
synod  of  381,  that  palladium  of  the  Byzantine  Church, 
enacts  that  the  bishop  of  Constantinople  shall  have 
the  privileges  of  the  bishop  of  Rome,  and  (as  was 
further  concluded)  that  the  clergy  of  new  Rome  shall 
have,  in  like  manner,  all  the  rights  of  the  clergy  of 
old  Rome.  Therefore,  says  Balsamon,  and  this  was 
the  opinion  of  the  clergy  of  the  capital,  all  in  the  way 
of  honors,  dignity,  and  privileges,  which  Constantine 
had  showered  on  the  clergy  of  old  Rome  with  so 
prodigal  a  hand,  holds  good  also  for  the  clergy  and 
patriarch  of  new  Rome.  Another  and  later  imperial 
enactment,  also  cited  by  Balsamon, ^  serves  to  confirm 
this,  viz.,  that  Constantinople  shall  enjoy,  not  merely 
the  privileges  of  Italy,  but  those  of  Rome  itself.  The 
emperors  themselves  accepted  the  objects  at  which 
this  document  was  aimed,  at  any  rate  those  which 
had  reference  to  the  relations  between  ecclesiastical 
and  civil  dignities.  Thus  Michael  Palttologus,  in  the 
year  1270,  wrote  to  direct  the  patriarch,  that  whereas 
he,  the  emperor,  had  appointed  the  deacon  Theodore 
Skutariotes  to  the  office  of  Dikasophylax   (supreme 

1  Cf.  tit.  1,  c.  3G,  p.  38,  tbcu  tit.  8,  c.  1,  pp.  85,  89,  cd.  faiis,  iG20. 


114  '^HE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

judge  or  custos  justitice),  the  said  deacon  should  also 
be  invested  with  an  equivalent  ecclesiastical  dignity, 
namely,  that  of  an  exokatakoilos  (that  is  an  assessor 
of  the  patriarch  with  the  right  of  precedence  of  the 
bishops)  according  to  the  terms  of  Constantine's 
rescript  to  Sylvester.^ 

Moreover,  the  Donation  was  acknowledged  in  the 
West  centuries  before  it  was  known  and  noticed  by 
the  Greeks.  The  lately-published  Georgius  Ilamar- 
tolus  2  (about  the  year  843)  recounts  the  fables  con- 
nected with  the  legend  of  Sylvester  in  considerable 
detail,  but  does  not  say  a  .single  woi-d  about  the 
Donation.  On  the  contrary,  he  represents  the  em- 
peror as  giving  up  the  West  to  his  sons  Constantius 
and  Constans,  and  to  his  nephew  Dalmatius,  intending 
to  make  Byzantium  his  own  place  of  residence.  The 
first  Byzantine  who  mentions  and  makes  use  of  the 
Donation  is  Balsamon,  who  died  patriarch  of  Antioch 
in  the  year  1 180,  that  is  at  a  period  when  the  Greeks 
had  long  since  lost  every  foot  of  territory  in  Italy, 
and  the  giving  away  of  Italy  to  the  papal  chair  was  a 
matter  perfectly  harmless  so  far  as  they  at  least  were 
concerned.     But  at  that  time  the  Latins  had  for  long 

1  N^velloi  Comlitutionea  Imperatorum  post  Justinianum,  ed.  Zaclia- 
ria-,  185T,  p.  592. 

2  Chronicon,  cd.  E.  dc  Muralto,  Pctropoli,  1859,  p.  390. 


T?TE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  115 

been  paramount  in  Syria,  and  it  was  from  them 
probably  that  Balsamon  got  the  document. 

The  Donation  of  Constantine,  therefore  beyond  all 
doubt  was  composed  in  the  Wcst,^  in  Italy,  in  Rome, 
and  by  a  Roman  ecclesiastic.  The  time  of  its  appear- 
ance points  to  the  same  conclusion. 

The  date  at  which  the  Donation  of  Constantine 
was  composed    may  be   placed  with   overwhelming 

1  [The  anthor  of  Der  Papst  und  das  Coneil  entirely  concurs  in 
tins  conclusion,  placing  the  date  of  it  a  little  before  754,  it  having 
been  obviously  composed  with  a  view  to  being  shown  to  Pepin. 
"  There  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the  lloman  origin  of  the  '  Donation. 
"The  Jesuit  Cantel  has  rightly  recognised  this  in  his  Ilift.  Meirop. 
"  Urb.,  p.  195.  He  thinks  that  a  Tioman  subdencon,  John,  was  the 
"author.  The  document  had  a  threefold  object — against  the 
"Lombards,  who  were  threatening  Home,  against  the  Greeks  who 
*' would  acknowledge  no  impcrium  of  the  lloman  sec  over  their 
"church,  and  also  with  a  view  to  the  Franks.  The  attempt  of  the 
"Jesuits  in  the  Civiltd  to  make  a  Frank  the  author  merely  because 
"^neas  of  Paris  and  Ado  of  Vienna  mention  the  Donation  in  the 
"  ninth  century,  is  scarcely  worth  serious  discussion ;  it  condenms 
"itself  The  closest  agreement  in  style  and  thought  exists  between 
"the  Donation  and  contemporary  lloman  documents,  especially  the 
"  Conatilutum  Pauli  i.  (Ilarduin  Coneil  in.,  1909  ff.),  and  the  Epitlola 
"iS.  Petri,  composed  in  753  or  754,  about  the  same  time  as  the 
"  Donation,  The  expression  '  Concinnatio  luminarium,'  which 
"occurs  in  papal  letters  of  that  age,  in  the  Comtilulum  J 'anU  &nd 
"  the  Donatio,  and  nowhere  else,  betrays  at  once  a  Koman  hand.  So 
"  do  the  form  of  imprecation  and  threat  of  hell-tormen'-s,  exactly  as 
"in  the  C mtilutum  and  the  Epitlo'a  S.  Petri;  and  the  term 
"'Satrapaj'  wholly  foreign  to  the  West,  and  occurring  only  in  the 
•'Donation  and  contemporary  papal  letters.  See  Ceuni,  Jtlonum. 
^jDommut.  Ponli/.,  i.,  154."     Janus,  iii.,  note  103  ] 


ii6  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

probability  in  those  years  which  extend  from  the  time 
when  the  power  of  the  Lombard  kingdom  began  to 
decHne,  i.  e.,  from  about  A.D.  752,1  ^-q  |;|^g  year  'j'j'j,  in 
which  pope  Hadrian  first  makes  mention  of  the  gift 
of  Constantinc.  Earlier  than  that  the  author  could 
not  well  expect  any  result  from  his  invention.  What 
he  aimed  at  was  a  great  kingdom  embracing  the 
whole  of  Italy  under  the  rule  of  the  pope,  instead  of 
an  Italy  divided  between  the  Lombards  and  the 
Greeks,  in  which  Rome  was  perpetually  exposed  to 
the  attacks  of  the  one  and  the  maltreatment  of  the 
other.  In  Rjmc  the  rule  of  the  Greeks,  however 
oppressive  it  nr>ht  be  at  times,  was  always  preferred 
to  that  of  the  Jvombards.  The  latter  dominion  was 
considered  as  the  greatest  of  all  evils,  while  the 
emperor  and  exarch  of  Ravenna  received,  on  the  whole, 
willing  obedience  in  Rome.  The  popes  were  far 
from  wishing  to  overthrow  the  Byzantine  dominion 
in  Italy,  even  when  its  yoke  seemed  intolerable,  as 
for  example,'under  the  two  iconoclasts  Leo  and  Con- 
stantinc Copronymus.  Even  when  the  opportunity 
presented  itself,  they  still  did  not  wish  to  overthrow  it. 
At  any  rate,  between  685  and  741,  we  see  ten  popes 

1  [The  j'car  of  Pepin's  accession  ;  in  T55  he  was  besieging  (he 
Louibanls  in  \\v\x  own  capitil.  Astoliili  yielded  at  once,  and  cedid 
the  whole  of  the  contested  territory  to  Popia  and  the  Pope.  Cf 
Milman,  Latin  ChrisHaniiy  bk.  iv.,  chap.  xi.J 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  117 

follow  one  another,  all  of  whom,  w^th  one  exception, 
were  either  Syrians  (John  V.,  Sergius,  Sisinius, 
Constantine,  and  Gregory  III.),  or  Greeks  (Conon, 
John  VI.,  John  VII.,  and  Zacharias).  This  fact  alone 
is  sufficient  to  show  that  Byzantine  influence  in  Rome 
was  still  quite  predominant.^  And  the  one  Roman 
amongst  them,  Gregory  II.,  did  all  that  lay  in  his 
power  to  keep  down  the  Italians  (who  were  embittered 
by  Leo's  tyrannical  persecution  of  image-worship,  and 

1  ["  Nocli  V(illig  Cbcrwiogcnd  war."  Some  miglit  think  (his 
expression  ifitli'T  too  strong  of  the  period  between  716  and  741. 
Gregory  II.  (71G-7I3)  begins  a  new  era  in  the  papaty.  His  imme- 
diute  predecessor  Constantine  "  was  the  last  pope  who  was  tho 
"  humble  subject  of  the  Ea.st^rn  Emperor."  Gregory's  opposition  to 
Leo  tlic  Isanrian  on  tlie  subject  of  iconoc:Iasm  is  quite  uncompro- 
mising. His  li  tters  to  tlie  emp;ror  on  the  question  are  arrogant 
and  til  fiant,  almost  luutal  in  tone.  "  Xi(]ue  judit  iiim  I) 'i  reformi- 
"  dasti,  qiium  scandala  in  hominum  corda,  non  fidelium  modo,  sed 
«'et  infideiiinn,  ingrmrent."  *' Tii  mtmdum  totum  st  andalizasti, 
"  ut  qui  mortem  nolis  subire,  et  inf  licem  ratit)nem  reddire." 
"  Ingredere  rursimi  ad  viritatem,  imde  e.xivisti ;  e.xcute  spiritns 
"  elatos,  et  pertinaciam  tolle  ;  atqiie  ad  omnes  scribe  quoquoversum  ; 
"eosque  quibus  oftVndiculo  fnisti,  erige,  qiiosque  excajcasti ;  tuniL-tisi 
"  pr!«  nimiii  tuA  stiipiditato  illud  pro  nihilo  habes."  "  Serijisisti  nt 
"concilium  imiversale  cogcretur;  et  nobis  inutilis  ea  res  visa  est 
"T»  persecutor  cs  imaginum,  et  hostis  contunuliosus  et  oversor. 
"CVssa,  nobis  hoc  largi re  ut  tacea.s:  turn  miuidus  pace  pirfruetur, 
"et  scandala  ces.sabunt."  Gregory  concludes  this  long  and  oflfensive 
letter  with  a  prayer  thatGcnl  will  drive  out  from  tlu;  Kmpi'ror's  lit  art 
the  evil  biings  which  dwell  (here.  Harduin  Ada  Concil.,  iv.,  1. 
The  second  letter  is  al.so  strong  in  language.  Gr.gory  III.  during 
his  briefer  pontifuate  (731-741)  maintjiined  the  indexible  ojipositioa 
of  his  predecessor.] 


ii8  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

had  already  begun  to  think  of  electing  a  Roman 
emperor  of  their  own),  under  the  yoke  of  subjection. 
He  caused  a  rebellion  which  had  broken  out  against 
Byzantium  to  be  put  down  by  Roman  troops,  and 
had  the  head  of  the  ringleader  of  the  rebels  sent  to 
Constantinople.  The  popes  always  regarded  as  a 
calamity  every  conquest  which  the  Lombards  made 
in  Italy  at  the  expense  of  Greek  dominion ;  a  calamity 
which  they  zealously  strove  to  avert  by  prayers  and 
remonstrances,  as  well  as  by  personal  intercession 
with  the  Lombard  kin^^s.  They  had  clearly  and  fully 
recognized  the  fact,  that  when  the  possession  of  the 
exarchate  should  have  strengthened  Lombard  power 
and  Lombard  craving  for  the  possession  of  the  whole 
peninsula,  then  the  decree  for  their  own  subjection, 
and  that  of  Rome,  under  this  detested  dominion,  would 
be  already  sealed. 

How  powerful  the  fear  of  the  Lombards  and  the 
aversion  to  them  must  have  been  in  Rome,  may  be 
seen  from  the  fact  that  Byzantine  dominion  was 
always  considered  preferable  there  ;  although,  as- 
suredly, neither  the  popes  nor  the  Roman  clergy  had 
had  so  much  to  endure  at  the  hands  of  the  Lombards 
as  at  the  hands  of  the  Greeks.  True,  they  had  to 
bear  heavy  exactions,  owing  to  the  avarice  of  the 
exarchs,    to   one   of  whom  even   the   sacred  vessels 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  119 

belonging  to  St.  Peter's  had  to  be  given  as  pledges 
(about  the  year  700).  True,  that  if  ever  the  emperor's 
suspicions  were  excited  in  Byzantium,  the  popes  must 
submit  to  be  summoned  thither  to  answer  for  them- 
selves ;  as  Sergius  is  said  to  have  been  brought  thither 
at  the  command  of  Justinian  II.,  and  pope  Constan- 
tinc,  in  the  year  709,  was  compelled  to  obey  the  sum- 
mons of  the  emperor  to  Nicomedia  in  Asia,  while  the 
exarch  John  caused  four  leading  ecclesiastics  to  be 
executed  ^  in  Rome.  For  all  that  the  antipathy  to 
the  Lombards  was  paramount.  The  reason  for  this 
hatred  was,  as  it  seems,  mainly  the  Lombards'  2 
barbarous  mode  of  warfare,  the  perpetual  ravaging, 
firing,  and  burning,  which  threatened  to  change  the 
beautiful  peninsula  at  last  into  an  unproductive 
uninhabited  wilderness.  Not  until  the  incapacity  or 
disinclination  of  the  Greeks  to  protect  the  provinces 
of  Italy  against  the  Lombards  compelled  the  Italians 
to  renounce  the  hopes  and  wishes  they  had  hitherto 
entertained,  did  they  throw  themselves  into  the  strong 
arms  of  the  Franks.     But  even  as  late  as  752  Stephen 

1  Vita  Constantini,  cd.  Vignoli,  ii  ,  p.  9. 

2  [The  Lomliard  host  contaiii'^il  various  wild  Teutonic  or  Slavo- 
nian hordes.  Their  wars  with  tij-  Franks  kept  them  somewhat  in 
check,  otherwise  they  mij^ht  have  devasted  Italy  still  more.  Cum- 
pare  the  story  of  .Vlhoin  pl<Mi;;ing  his  adultiroiis  queen  Rnsmmidaia 
a  cup  made  of  her  lather's  skull,  and  Uic  tragical  end  of  both.] 


120  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

IV.  had  made  another  appeal  to  the  Greek  emperor, 
imploring  him  to  appear  with  an  army  for  the  defence 
of  Italy  against  the  Lombards. 

After  the  year  728  Gregory  II,  made  an  attempt  to 
form  a  confederation  of  cities,  which  was  to  maintain 
itself  independently  alike  of  the  Greeks  and  of  the 
Lombards;  the  head  and  centre  of  it  was  to  be  the 
papal  chair.  ^  The  plan  came  to  nothing.  In  Rome, 
however,  the  idea  ripened  more  and  more,  that  the 
power  of  the  pope  might  come  forward  in  Italy  and 
take  the  place  of  the  decaying  power  of  the  Greeks, 
and  the  reluctantly  tolerated  power  of  the  Lombards; 
and  hence  this  document  of  the  Donation  was  forged, 
to  represent  this  as  the  normal  condition  of  things, 
planned  long  ago  by  the  first  Christian  emperor. 
WheLher  this  was  before  the  donation  of  Pepin  or 
after  it,  can  now  no  more  be  decided  ;  but  at  any  rate 
it  was  before  the  founding  of  the  Frankisli  kingdom 
of  Italy,  and  therefore  before  774.  For  after  this  was 
established  all  prospect  of  realising  a  union  of  Italian 
states  fell  to  the  ground,  and  then  the  fiction  of  the 
Donation  would  have  ceased  to  have  any  object. 
But  it  may  very  well  have   been  composed  soon  after 

1  ['ri)is  sfatcmcnt  soincwliat  qnalifics  what  is  said  in  Essaj'  viii. 
of  (ir(f,'ory  Ix  irig  well  aware  (hat  Italian  states  coiikl  wd  stand 
without  Ijyzantiuc  support;  and,  least  of  all,  the  Romaa.j 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  121 

the  giving  up  of  the  exarchate  through  Pepin,  in  order 
to  prepare  the  way  for  claims  to  the  whole  of  Italy, 
and  to  give  them  an  historical  basis  against  the  day 
when  the  internal  weakness  of  the  Lombard  kingdom 
should  end  in  complete  disintegration.  And  so,  not 
long  after  this,  in  the  time  of  Charlemagne,^  a  docu- 
ment was  forged,  in  which,  in  very  wild,  and  in  some 
places  scarcely  intelligible  Latin,  a  detailed  narrative 
is  put  into  the  mouth  of  king  Pepin  of  all  that  had 
taken  place  between  him,  the  Greeks,  the  Lombards, 
and  pope  Stephen  ;  and  it  then  makes  Pepin  give 
nearly  the  whole  of  Italy  (Vcnctia  and  Istria  included) 
to  the  pope,  cither  there  and  then,  or  (as  in  the  case 
of  Bcneventum  and  Naples)  by  promising  them  when 
they  should  be  conquered.  ^ 

The  pseudo-Isidore,  as  has  been  noticed  already, 

1  In  Fantuzzi  ;  Donimenti  Rnvennati,  vi.,  2C5. 

2  Instead  of  the  cmporor  Constantinc,  Pepin  talks  of  the  emperor 
Leo  (tlie  Isauriau  is  intended),  wiying  that  Leo's  ftnihassador,  Ma- 
rinus,  had  come  'o  liira.  Here  there  is  a  confusion  of  the  presbyter, 
Marinus,  sent  fn  m  Home  to  Pepin,  and  that  Si>atharin.s  Marinas, 
whom  Leo  had  sent  to  Italy  witli  the  commission  to  i)Ut  popo 
Gregory  II.  out  .f  the  way.  The  document,  moreover,  makes  tlio 
Greek  emperor  g  vc  the  pojjc  formal  leave  to  choose  out  a  protector, 
with  whom  he  jould  then  decide  as  seemed  best  respecting  (ho 
Roman  duchy  airl  the  exarchate.  It  is  manifestly  invented  with  a 
double  object,  tu-.t,  by  supplying  the  consent  of  the  IJyzantinc  court 
to  do  away  with  n  legal  objection  ;  and,  secondly,  to  bring  about  an 
enlargement  of  the  donation  of  Charles  the  Great. 

11 


122  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

incorporated  the  Donation  of  Constantlne  into  his 
collection  as  an  ancient  document ;  and  it  certainly  is 
found  in  all  known  manuscripts.  The  pseudo-Isidore, 
undoubtedly,  did  not  compose  it  himself,  although 
this  has  lately  been  supposed  by  GreL.orovIus.  ^  The 
contents  and  purpose  of  the  fiction  \vere  altogether 
alien  to  the  West- Prankish  author  of  the  False  Decre- 
tals. The  language  also  is  different  from  his.  But  it 
is  equally  untenable,  on  the  other  hand,  that  it  did 
not  come  into  existence  till  the  tenth  century,  as  the 
Oratorian  Morin  attempted  to  sho^v.  His  main 
argument  is,  that  Otho  III.,  in  his  deed  of  gift  of  the 
year  999,  mentions  a  deacon  John  with  the  sobriquet 
"  Digitorum  mutius,"  (i.e.  mutilus,  mozr^o,)  as  the  man 
who  wrote  the  document  in  golden  letters  in  Constan- 
tine's  name.  This  John  the  deacon,  Morin  supposes, 
is  the  man  whom  John  XII.  first  used  as  his  tool,  and 
then,  in  the  year  974,  caused  his  right  hand  to  be  cut 
off  2  A  mistaken  idea  ;  for  a  man  who  had  lost  his 
right  hand  would  not  have  been  called  "with  mutilated 
fingers,"  as  a  sobriquet.  Moreover,  the  Donation  01 
Constantine  may  very  well  have  been  extant  at  an 

1  Geschichte  der  Stadt  Rom.,  iii.,  400.  Conni  had  anticipated  hira 
in  maintaining;  this,  and  that  "  jjhiudentihus  nostii  aivi  oruditis,"  as 
he  thinks.     Monum.,  i.,  305. 

2  According  to  Luitprand,  Ilist.  Ottonis,  in  Pertz,  v.,  346,  and 
Conlin.  lieginon.,  ad  a.  9G4. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  p^3 

earlier  period,  before  John  the  deacon,  of  whom  the 
draughtsman  of  Otho's  document  makes  mention, 
wrote  it  out  in  golden  letters,  in  order  to  invest  it  w^th 
greater  dignity. 

An  analysis  and  closer  consideration  of  the  conteiits 
of  the  document  will  give  a  still  higher  degree  of 
certainty  to  the  supposition  that  it  originated  in 
Rome  between  750  and  774. 

The  following  are  among  the  grants  made  in  the 
Donation  to  the  popes  and  the  Roman  clergy  : — 

1.  Constantine  desires  to  promote  the  Chiir 
of  Peter  over  the  empire  and  its  seat  on  earth,  by 
bestowing  on  it  imperial  power  and  honour. 

2.  The  Chair  of  Peter  shall  have  supreme 
authority  over  the  patriarchal  Chairs  of  Alexan- 
dria, Antioch,  Jerusalem,  and  Constantinople,  and 
over  all  churches  in  the  world. ^ 

3  It  shall  be  judge  in  all  that  concerns  the 
service  of  God  and  the  Christian  Faith.^ 

1  ["Ut  principatuni  tcncat  tam  super  quatnor  scdes,  Alcxnndrin- 
"nani,  Antiochcnam,  Hicrosolyinitanain  ac  Constantinopolitnnain, 
«'  quamquo  etiam  super  omncs  in  univirso  orbc  Urranim  fcclesms." 
As  cited  by  Leo  IX.,  Ilardiiin,  vi.,  935.]  The  Greeks  have  omitted 
tliis  article  in  the  recension  in  ijlastares,  and  in  that  of  the  Parisian 
manuscript. 

2  This  article  also  is  wanting  in  both  the  above-mentioned  te.xts. 
[Leo  IX.,  of  course,  retains  it,  *'et  ejus  judicio  quajquc  ad  cultum 
"Dei  vel  fidei  Christianorum  stabilitatem  procuranda  fueriut,  dis- 
"  ponantur."] 


124  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

4,  Instead  of  the  diadem,  which  the  emperor 
wished  to  place  on  the  pope's  head,  but  which 
the  pope  refused,  Constantine  has  given  to  him 
and  to  his  successors  the  phrygium  ^  (that  is  the 
tiara)  and  the  lorum  which  adorned  the  emperor's 
neck,  as  well  as  the  other  gorgeous  robes  and 
j'nsignia  of  the  imperial  dignity. 

5.  The  Roman  clergy  shall  enjoy  the  high 
privileges  of  the  imperial  senate,  being  eligible 
to  the  dignity  of  patrician  or  consul,  a  id  having 
the  right  to  wear  the  decoration  worn  by  the 
(optimates  or)  nobles  in  ofifice  under  the  empire.  ^ 

6.  The  offices  of  cubicularii,  ostiarii,  and 
excubita;,  shall  belong  to  the  Roman  Church. 

7.  The  Roman  clergy  shall  ride  on  horses 
decked  with  white  coverlets,  and,  like  the  senate, 
wear  white  sandals. 

1  [Leo  IX.  says,  at  first,  loth  the  diadem  and  the  phrvplnm  : 
"deiiido  diadcnia,  videlicet  coronam  capitin  nostri,  simulquo 
"  phryginm,  nccnon  et  siiperlmmerale,  videlicet  lorum  quod  inijierialo 
c'  circumdare  assolct  collum."  But  later  on,  after  mentionini^  Sylves- 
ter's refusal  of  the  gold  crown,  "  phrygium  autem  caudido  nitore, 
"  si)]endidam  resurrectionem  Dominicam  designans,  ejus  sacrat- 
"issimo  vcrtici  nianibus  nostris  imposuinius,  ct  tenentes  frenum 
"cqui  ipsius,  pro  revcrentia  beati  Petri,  &c."] 

2  Imperialis  militia,  rrr/w-ta,  which  Miinch  (0«  the  Donation  of 
Conslantinc,  j).  22)  translati'S  as  "the  imperial  army,"  remarking 
that  tlie  Roman  clergy  had  been  desirous  of  wearing  militar}'  deco- 
jations.  A  glance  at  Duncange's  Glossary  would  have  told  him  what 
"militia  "  or  "  ctiiutiu  "  meant  at  that  time  [viz.,  court  officials]. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  12$ 

8.  If  a  member  of  the  senate  shall  wish  to  take 
orders,  and  the  pope  consents,  no  one  shall  hinder 
him.  1 

9.  Constantine  gives  up  the  remaining  sove- 
reignty over  Rome,  the  provinces,  cities,  and 
towns  of  the  whole  of  Italy  or  of  the  western 
regions,  to  pope  Sylvester  and  his  successors. 

Judging  from  the  detailed  and  careful  manner  in 
■which  each  single  clause  is  treated,  we  may  conclude 
that  the  author,  who  beyond  all  doubt  was  a  Roman 
ecclesiastic,  had  the  articles  and  colour  of  the  dress 
proper  to  the  pope  and  clergy,  with  their  titles  and 
insignia  of  rank,  far  more  at  heart  than  the  ninth 
clause  which,  tacked  on  at  the  end  and  expressed  in 
few  words,  was  so  pregnant  with  consequences,  t/ie 
Donation  of  Rome  and  Italy.  And  here  one  must  at 
the  same  time  remember,  that  the  composer  intended 
Italy  alone,  and  not  almost  the  whole  of  the  West 
which  belonged  to  the  kingdom  of  Rome  at  the  time 
of  Constantine,  that  is  to  say,  Gaul,  Spain,  Britain,  etc., 
to  be  comprehended  in  the  Donation  as  well  as  Italy. 
In  all  probability  he  knew  nothing  of  the  real  extent 
of  the  empire  at  the  time  of  Constantine,  but  had  only 

1  So  the  Greek  text.  The  Latin  reading  "  nullus  ex  omnibua 
"  pr^esumat  siiperbo  agcro  "  makes  no  kind  of  seuso  with  the  context 
just  preceding. 


126  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

the  circumstances  of  the  eighth  century  before  his 
eyes,  for  he  says  "  Italy  or  the  western  regions," 
doubtless  merely  to  define  more  closely  the  geograph- 
ical expression  "  Italy,"  and  to  include  Istria,  Corsica, 
and  Sardinia.  Not  until  a  later  age  was  the  ''or" 
changed  into  "  and!'  And  for  long  the  matter  was  so 
understood.  The  popes  ^  Hadrian  I.  and  Leo  IX, 
the  emperor  Otho  III.  and  cardinal  Peter  Damiani 
found  in  the  document  merely  the  donation  of  Italy. 

If  one  considers  the  remaining  clauses,  that  is  to 
say,  the  demands  and  wishes  of  Roman  ecclesiastics 
clad  in  the  form  of  supposed  concessions,  one  sees 
that  they  altogether  have  reference  to  the  state  of 
affairs  in  Rome  and  Italy  about  the  middle  of  the 
eighth  century.  The  author  naturally  has  not  so 
much  the  arrangement  and  relations  of  rank  in  Con- 
stantinople before  his  eyes,  as  those  of  that  part  of 
Italy  which  at  that  time  was  still  Byzantine.  The 
senate,  with  which  the  clergy  in  Rome  wished  to  be 
placed  on  an  equality  in  certain  privileges,  was  no 

1  ["  Et  sicnt  temporibus  beati  Sylvestri  Romani  Pontificis,  a  sancta3 
"  r(;cordationis  piisimo  Constantino  Imperatore,  per  ejus  largitatem 
"sancta  Dei  Catliolica  ct  Apostolica  Romana  Ecclesia  elevata  atqne 
"exalt'ita  est,  ot  ])otestatcm  in  his  IJespcrire  partibtis  l-irgiri 
dig:iatn.s  est,  &c.,  &c."  Letter  of  Hadrian  I.  to  Charles  the  Great. — 
Recueil  des  lUstoriens  dea  Oaulea  et  de  la  France,  ap.  Palme,  Paris,  1860, 
v.,  550,  c] 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  127 

longer  the  old  Roman  senate.  That  had  perished  in 
the  sixth  century,  during  the  wars  with  the  Goths  and 
the  Lombards.  The  senate  is  never  mentioned  ^  in 
the  period  from  the  end  of  the  sixth  to  the  middle  of 
the  eighth  century,  but  reappears  first  in  the  year  757 
as  the  collective  body  of  the  Roman  optimates.  ^ 
After  that  time  we  have  mention  made  of  a  special 
place  for  the  senators  [senatorium]  in  the  two  chief 
churches  in  Rome.  Those  who  sat  there  received 
the  holy  communion  from  the  hands  of  the  pope 
himself.  ^  It  was,  in  fact,  a  new  official  nobility  which 
was  formed,  partly  out  of  the  military  aristocracy  of 
citizens,  partly  out  of  ecclesiastical  dignitaries  ;  and 
the  latter  were  also  to  have  their  share — this  was  one 
of  the  objects  which  the  author  of  the  fiction  had  in 
view — in  the  highest  titles  of  honour  which  the 
emperors  granted  to  certain  pre-eminent  members  of 
the  civil,  or  ratlicr  military  aristocracy. 

The  ranks  of  patrician  and  consul,  for  instance, 
which   were   to   be  made   accessible  to  the    Roman 

1  Savigny's  assertions  (Oesehichte  de»  Rom.  RechU,  i.,  3G7)  arc  on 
this  point  too  strong;  that  in  all  centuries,  as  he  says,  are  to  bo 
found  undeniable  traces  of  the  real  continuance  of  the  Roman  senate 
is,  at  any  rate,  without  foundation  as  regards  the  period  between 
C60  and  750. 

2  "Salutant  vos  et  cunctus  proccrum  senatus,  atquo  diversi 
«  populi  congregatio."     Cenni,  ii.,  146. 

3  Mabillou,  JIus.  Iial.,  ii.,  xliv.,  lii.,  10. 


128  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

clergy,  were  at  that  time  the  highest  at  which 
ambition  ^  could  aim,  A  patrician,  ^  or  member  of 
the  imperial  Privy  Council,  was  promoted  to  his  rank 
by  being  solemnly  invested  with  an  embroidered 
robe  of  state ;  and  even  governors  of  provinces  felt 
themselves  raised  in  dignity  by  the  addition  of  this 
title,  the  highest  in  the  empire.  From  the  year  754 
onwards  the  pope,  in  tlie  name  of  the  R- 'man  republic 
(which  still  continued  to  be  considered  as  always 
virtually  existing),  and  with  the  acquie:5cencc  of  the 
Roman  people,  claimed  to  have  tlic  power  of  confer- 
ring the  title  of  "  patrician  of  Rome  ;"  and  gave  it,  as 
is  well  known,  in  the  first  instance  to  king  Pepin  and 
king  Carloman.  ^    Thus  the  highest  temporal  dignity 

1  In  the  Vita  Agathonif,  Vignoli,  i.,  279,  wo  have  the  high  digni- 
taries thus  reckoned :  "  Patricii,  Hynati  cum  omni  Syncleto."  In 
the  year  TOl  Theophylact  was  Cubiculurius,  Patiicius,  Exarchus 
Italia),  ibid.,  i.,  315. 

2  [Tliis  new  rank  of  patrician  was  created  at  Constantinople,  and 
was  not  conferred  on  old  Roman  families.  It  was  b  personal,  not  an 
hereditiiry  dignity,  and  became  extinct  with  the  death  of  the  holder. 
A  patrician  family  at  this  peilod  meant  one,  of  which  tlio  heiid  was 
a  patrician.  The  patricians  were  the  highest  of  the  illustres  ;  consuls 
alone  ranked  higher.  A  patrician  was  distinguished  by  such  titles 
as  Magnificcntia,  Cclsitudo,  Eminentia,  and  Wagnitu<lo.  The  new 
(lignity  was  not  confined  to  subjects  of  the  empire,  but  was  some- 
timrs  given  to  foreigners,  such  as  Odoaccr.  Other  sovereigns 
imitated  the  emperors  and  popes  in  conferring  this  title  on  eminent 
subjects,  but  such  patricians  ranked  far  below  Roman  patricians. 
Smith's  Dictionary  of  Antiquities,  "  Patricii,"  sub  tin.] 

3  ["lu  tho  meantiiau  Uio  right  of  conquest,  and  tho  indefinitg 


THE  DONATION  OP  CONSTANTINE.  129 

in  Rome,  after  that  of  emperor  or  a  Caesar,  was  to  be 
in  the  pope's  gift,  and  that  without  any  theoretical 
infringement  of  the  imperial  prerogative.  When  the 
Greek  dominion  perished  in  north  and  central  Italy, 
the  patriciate,  as  a  dignity  conferred  on  particular 
governors,  vanished  along  with  it,  and  there  remained 
only  the  one  Roman  patriciate,  the  chief  dignity 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  city  of  Rome. 

The  consuls  also,  as  Savigny  ^  has  remarked,  were 
first  mentioned  in  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century, 
and  constituted  the  rank  next  to  the  patricians.  The 
chief  city  magistrates  bore  this  title,  one,  however 
which  thenceforward  occurs  merely  as  a  title  of 
honour.  One  such  consul  (and  dux)  was  Thcodatus, 
the  tutor  of  Hadrian  I.,  and  afterwards  primicerius  of 
the  Roman  Church.  His  contemporary  Leoninus,  in 
like  manner,  was  at  the  same  time  both  consul  and 
dux,  afterwards  a  monk.  ^ 

Further  use  of  Constantine's  name  was  made  to 
obtain  for  the  popes  the  right  of  having  gentlemen  of 
the  bed-chamber,  door-keepers,  and    a   body-guard 

title  of  patrician,  assigned  by  the  pope  (Stcplicn),  arting  in  hdial^ 
and  with  the  consent  of  tlie  Roman  republic,  to  I'epin — a  title  whit  h 
might  be  merely  lionorary,  or  might  justify  any  authority  which  lio 
miglit  have  power  to  exercise — gave  a  liind  of  supremacy  to  the  king 
of  tlie  Franks  in  Rome.'' — Milman,  Lat.  Chr.,  iv.,  c.  xi.] 

1  A.,  a.,  0.,  p.  370.     He  quotes  Fantuzzi,  Mon.  Rav.,  i.,  15. 

2  Viia  Iladr^  in  Viguoli,  ii.,  1G2,  210. 


1^0  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

(cabicularii,  ostiarii,  cxcubitores).  Here  again  the 
date  fits  exactly.  Formerly  in  Italy  there  were  only 
imperial  cubicularli.  Not  until  the  time  of  Stephen 
IV.  and  Hadrian  I.  do  we  find  an  instance  of  a  papal 
cubicularitis,\\z.,  Paul  Afiarta,^  who  at  the  same  time 
was  siiperista,  that  is,  overseer  of  the  palace.  In  ^  the 
first  Ordo  Romaiuis  in  Mabillon,  who  describes  the 
Roman  ceremonial  at  the  end  of  the  eighth  and  begin- 
ning of  the  ninth  century,  the  cubicularius  tonsuratus, 
who  had  to  carry  the  papal  robes,  is  mentioned  for 
the  first  time. 

In  the  Roman  Ordo  of  Cencius  (twelfth  century) 
the  portarii  or  ostiarii  pro  aistodicndo  palatio  were 
placed  in  the  second  rank  under  the  Roman  scholae 
or  guilds  of  the  papal  court  servants,  and  described 
according  to  their  duties.  ^  Lastly,  the  cxcubitores  are 
unmistakcably  the  so-called  adcxtratorcs  of  a  later 
age,  a  guard  of  honour,  "*  which  escorted  the  pope  in 
processions  and  visits  to  churches. 

The  author  of  the  Donation  manifestly  attached 
great    importance    to    the    point,    that    the    Roman 

1  Tliat  he  was  cubicularius  of  the  pope,  and  not  of  the  emi^Tor, 
is  plain  from  the  Vita  Uadr.,  in  Vignoli,  ii.,  1G4  and  166;  for  in 
other  instances  tlic  Liber  Pontifiealis  adds  imperialism  as  in  the  caso 
of  Theodore  Pcllarius,  ib.  i.,  2G3. 

2  Mus.  Ilal.,  ii.,  6. 

3  I.  c,  p.  194,  ye. 

4  I.  C,  p.  196. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  131 

clergy  should  have  the  privilege  of  decking  their 
horses  with  white  coverings  , — altogether  in  harmony 
with  the  spirit  of  the  time  and  place,  where  this  was 
considered  as  a  thing  of  extraordinary  importance,  and 
as  a  precious  privilege  of  the  Roman  clergy  sur- 
passing all  others.  Hence  Gregory  the  Great  had 
before  this  notified  the  archbishop  of  Ravenna,  that 
the  Roman  clergy  would  on  no  account  concede  that 
the  use  of  horse-coverlets  {inappid(Z)  should  be  allowed 
to  the  clergy  of  Ravenna.  ^  The  Roman  biographer 
finds  great  fault  with  pope  Conon,  because  (about 
A.D.  687)  he  had  allowed  the  deacon  Constantine  of 
Syracuse,  whom  he  had  nominated  rector  of  the 
patrimony  there,  to  make  use  of  such  a  coverlet.  2 

Lastly,  the  object  attributed  to  Constantine  is 
altogether  in  accordance  with  the  sentiments  of  the 
eighth  century,  viz.,  that  he  endowed  the  Roman 
Church  with  possessions  in  the  East  and  West,  in 
order  that  the  lamps  and  tapers  which  burnt  in  the 
churches  and  at  the  tombs  of  the  Apostles  St.  Peter 
and  St.  Paul  might  be  kept  up  by  the  revenues.  And 
thus  pope  Paul  I.  writes  to  Pepin,  in  the  year  761, 
saying  that  the  contest  which  the  king  had  under- 

1  Greg.  M.  Opera^  il.,  G68,  cd.  Taris,  cf.  Qratian.  Decrse^  dist.  93, 

c.  22.  '^■ 

2  VU.  Conon.  ap.  Vignoli,  i.,  301. 


132  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

taken  against  the  Lombards  was  Avaged  by  him  for 
the  restoration  of  the  lamps  of  St.  Peter.  ^ 

Both  internal  and  external  evidence,  therefore, 
conducts  us  to  the  period  between  750  and  775  as 
the  time  when  the  Donation  of  Constantino  came 
into  existence.  The  supposition  of  Natalis  Alexander 
and  of  his  follower  Cenni,  ^  that  it  was  not  known  in 
Rome  before  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century,  is 
certainly  incorrect.  Hadrian  I.  undeniably  alludes 
to  it  in  the  words  that  Constantino  had  "given  the 
dominion  in  these  regions  of  the  West"  to  the  Romish 
Church.  These  are  the  "occidentaliuii  regionum 
provinciae  ((^vafi&v  xup(^v  tTrapxiai)"  of  which  t^ie  Donation 
speaks.  Nevertheless,  it  is  quite  certain  that  at  first 
no  pains  wore  taken  to  make  it  generally  known. 
From  Hadrian  I.  to  Leo  IX.  {yyG  to  1053)  there  is  no 
trace  of  it  to  be  found  in  the  letters  of  popes  ;  in  the 
older  manuscripts  of  the  Liber  Pontifical's  there  is  no 
mention  of  it ;  but  by  means  of  the  pseudo-Isidore 
(that  is  from  840  onwards),  it  began  to  be  known 
outside  Italy,  and  indeed  perhaps  mor.^  in  France 
tlian  in  Italy  itself.  For  though  Luitprand,  bishop 
of  Cremona,  as  imperial  ambassador  at  Byzantium 

3  Cenni,  i.,  isr):  "Pro  cujiis  restitiicnclis  Inniinn'iis  dccortatis." 
So  also  tlir  i)S'U(lo-Con.s(antin(',  "  Quibus  pro  couciunaliouc  lumiiia- 
"rium  [xisscssioni'H  coutulimus." 

4  Monuiiu,  i.,  30-1. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  133 

boasted  of  the  large  donations  which  Constantine  had 
given  to  the  Roman  Church,-  in  Persia,  Mesopotamia, 
and  Babylonia ;  yet  he  knew  nothing  of  the  contents 
of  the  forged  document,  or  at  any  rate,  gave  no  hint  of 
it ;  while,  on  the  other  hand,  two  men  who  for  their 
age  were  so  learned  and  so  well  read  in  ecclesiastical 
history  and  literature  as  ^Encas,  bishop  of  Paris,  and 
Ilincmar,  bishop  of  Rheims,  readily  accepted  it.  The 
former  of  them  (about  the  year  868)  represents  to  tl^e 
Greeks  that  Constantine  had  declared  that  two 
emperors,  the  one  of  the  realm,  the  other  of  the 
Church,  could  not  rule  in  common  in  one  city.  He 
had  therefore  removed  his  residence  to  Byzantium, 
but  had  placed  the  Roman  territory,  "  and  a  vast 
"  number  of  various  provinces,"  under  the  rule  of  the 
Apostolic  chair,  and  had  conferred  royal  power  ^  on 
the  pope.  Hincmar  expresses  himself  with  more 
reserve.  He  and  his  contemporary  bishop  Ado,  of 
Vienne,  in  his  chronicle  (about  860),  know  only  of 
Constantine's  having  given  up  the  city  of  Rome  to  the 
pope.  2 

Pope  Leo  IX.  recounted  nearly  the  whole  text  of 
the  Donation  to  the  patriarch  Michael  Ccrularius 
in   the   year    1054,  openly   and  confidently,  without 

1  Liher  adrersu-i  Grxco~,  ia  DAchery,  Spicil.,  vii.,  iii. 

2  Epist.  3,  c.  13. 

12 


134  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTTNE. 

having  (as  it  would  seem)  a  single  misgiving  as  to  the 
weakness  of  his  document.  He  wished  the  patriarch 
to  convince  himself  "  of  the  earthly  .and  heavenly 
"  imperium,  of  the  royal  priesthood  of  the  Roman 
"  Chair,"  and  retain  no  trace  of  the  suspicion  that 
this  chair  "  wished  to  usurp  power  by  the  help  of 
"  foolish  1  and  old  wives'  fables."  He  is,  however,  the 
only  one  of  all  the  popes  who  has  brought  the 
document  expressly  before  the  eyes  of  the  world,  and 
formally  challenged  criticism.  In  remarkable  contrast 
to  him,  his  guide  and  adviser  and  successor,  Gregory 
Vn.,  never  made  use  of  it,  in  not  one  of  his  numerous 
letters  even  mentions  it, — a  most  expressive  silence, 
when  one  considers  how  strong  the  temptation  must 
have  been  to  him  to  avail  himself  of  this  weapon 
against  his  numerous  and  overpowering  enemies. 
Not  so  his  friend,  cardinal  Peter  Damiani.  He  holds 
up  the  privilege  granted  by  Constantinc  as  an  impene- 
trable shield  against  the  Greeks,  who  supported  the 
cause  of  the  imperial  anti-pope  Caladous,  and  does 
not  forget  to  add  that  the  emperor  had  also  given 

1  lliinUiin,  Cone,  vi.,  934.  ["Scd  nc  forte  adhnc  de  terrcna  ipisus 
"dominatione  aliquis  vobis  dubictatis  snpersitscrupulus,  neve  leviter 
"  suspiceniini  incptis  et  anilibus  fabuli.s  sanctam  Romanam  scdem 
"  velle  sibi  inconcussum  houorem  vindicare  ct  defensare  ali(iua- 
«'  tonus,"  &c.,  &c.] 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTTNE.  135 

over    the    kingdom   of    Italy    to    the    rule    of   the 
popes.  ^ 

The  use  and  meaning  of  the  forged  Donation 
entered,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  new  stage  when  Urban 
II.,  in  the  year  1091,  used  it  to  support  the  claim  of 
the  Roman  Church  to  the  possession  of  Corsica.  He 
deduced  the  right  of  Constantine  to  give  away  islands, 
from  the  strange  principle  that  all  islands  were 
legally  Juris  publici,  and  therefore  state  domain.  It 
cannot  but  excite  surprise  that  Urban  did  not  prefer 
to  appeal  to  the  donation  of  Charlemagne,  or  rather 
does  not  once  mention  it.  For  not  only  is  Corsica 
enumerated  among  the  donations  which  Charlemagne 
is  said  to  have  made,  but  Leo  III.  says  this  distinctly 
in  a  letter  to  Ciiarlcmagne  in  the  year  808.  ^  The 
Church  at  that  time,  however,  having  no  fleet,  was 
not  in  a  position  to  maintain  a  possession  which  was 
perpetually  threatened  by  the  Saracens  ;  and  so  Leo 
was  obliged  to  beg  the  emperor  to  take  the  island  to 
himself,  and  protect  it  with  his  "strong  arm;"  and 
(as  the  Corsican  historian  Limperani  ^  remarks)  the 

1  Harduin,  i.  c,  1122.  [As  "defensor  Romana}  ecclesiaj,"  ho 
argues  that  Constantino  had  abdicated,  as  regards  Romu  and  Italy, 
in  favour  of  the  pope.  If,  tht^n,  the  emperor  had  no  autliority  in 
Eorac,  how  could  he  have  a  voice  in  the  election  of  the  pope  ?J 

2  Cenni,  ii.,  60. 

3  Istoria  della  Conica,  Boma,  17G0,  ii.,  2. 


T36  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTTNE. 

Roman  Chair  for  189  years  abstained  from  exercising 
any  dominion  in  Corsica.  Not  until  the  year  1077 
do  we  find  Gregory  VII.  ^  saying,  that  the  Corsicans 
are  ready  to  return  under  the  supremacy  of  the  pope ; 
and  from  the  letter  of  Urban  II.  to  bishop  Daibert,  of 
Pisa,  it  appears  that  this  actually  took  place  at  that 
time,  or  not  long  afterwards. 

On  this  notion,  that  it  was  the  islands  especially 
that  Constantino  had  given  to  the  popes,  they  pro- 
ceeded to  build,  although  nothing  had  been  said 
about  them  in  the  original  document ;  and  with  a 
bold  leap  the  Donation  of  Constantine  was  transferred 
irom  Corsica  to  the  farthest  West,  viz.,  to  Ireland;  and 
the  Papal  Chair  claimed  possession  of  an  island, 
which  the  Romans  themselves  had  never  possessed, 
and  had  scarcely  known.  This  was  done  by  Hadrian 
IV.  (ii54-ii59),2  an  Englishman  by  birth;  "Anglicana 

1  Lib.  6,  cpist.  12. 

2  [Nicolas  Breakspcare,  tho  poor  English  scholar,  yielded  to 
none  of  his  predecessors,  Hildebrand  not  excepted,  in  the  a.ssertion 
of  the  papal  authority,  "  Ho  was  snrpassed  by  few  in  tlie  boldness 
''and  courage  with  wliich  he  maintained  it.  English  pride  might 
"  mingle  with  sacerdotal  ambition  in  his  boon  of  a  new  kingdom  to 
"  his  native  sovereign.  Tlae  language  of  tho  grant  developed 
«<  principles  as  yet  unheard  of  in  Christendom.  The  popes  had 
«  assumed  the  feudal  sovereignity  of  Naples  and  Sicily,  as  in  some 
"  vague  way  the  successors  to  the  power  of  Imperial  Home.  But 
"  Hadrian  declared  that  Ireland,  and  all  islands  converted  to  Cliris- 
"  tiamty,.belonged  to  the  apecial  juiisdiction  of  fSt.  I'ctcr.     Tlio  pro- 


137  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

afifecttone,"  as  the  Irish  chieftains  declared  somewhat 
later  (i 316)  in  a  letter  to  John  XXII.  *  At  the  desire 
of  the  English  king,  Henry  IL,  the  pope  conferred  on 
him  the  dominion  over  tlie  island  of  Ireland  (11 5  5), 
which,  "  like  all  Christian  islands,  undoubtedly 
"  belonged  of  right  to  St  Peter  and  the  Roman 
"  Church/'  Tlie  king  thus  received  a  dominion 
which,  it  must  be  owned,  he  had  first  to  win  with  the 
sword ;  and,  indeed,  it  was  not  till  after  a  contest  of 
five  hundred  years,  and  for  the  most  part  only  by 
colonization  from  outside,  that  it  was  completely  won. 
It  did  not  help  the  English  much  to  say  to  the  Irish, 
"Your  island  belonged  in  former  times  to  the  pope, 
*'  and  since  he  has  given  it  to  king  Henry,  it  is  your 
"  duty  to  submit  yourselves  to  English  rule."  The 
Irish,  who  were  not  altogether  ignorant  of  the  history 
of  their  native  land,  knew  quite  well  that  neither  the 
Roman  emperors  nor  the  popes  had  ever  possessed  a 
foot's  breadth  of  their  country,  and  could  not  therefore 

«  phetic  ambition  of  Hadrian  might  seem  to  havo  anticipated  tho 
«'  time,  when  on  such  principles  tho  popes  should  assume  the  power 
"  of  granting  away  new  worlds." — Milman,  Lot.  Chritt^  Tiii.,  c.  vii.] 
1  In  M'Gcoghogan's  Histoire  de  flrlande,  li.,  106  sq.  They  state 
that  up  to  11  To  they  had  sixty-one  kings,  «<  nullum  In  temporalibus 
"  recognosccntes  supcrlorcm."  Hadrian  had  acted  "  Indebite,  ordino 
"juris  omlsso  omnino."  [For  this  famous  letter  of  Hadrian  to 
Henry  II.,  see  Appendix  D.J 


138  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

exactly  understand  how  pope  Hadrian  had  the  power 
to  make  a  present  of  it  to  England. 

Hadrian  does  not  mention  the  Donation  of  Con- 
stantine  in  his  Bull ;  but  his  friend  and  confidant, 
John  of  Salisbury,,  the  one  who,  ^  according  to  his 
own  confession,  induced  him  to  take  this  step  so 
pregnant  with  consequences,  quotes  the  Donation  of 
the  first  believing  emperor  as  the  ground  of  this  "right 
of  St.  Peter"  over  all  islands.  ^ 

1  "  Ad  prcces  mcas  illustri  regi  Anglonim,  Henrico  II.,  concessit 
"  et  dedit  Hibcrniam  jure  hffireditario  possidendam,  sicut  literaa 
"ipsiiis  testantur  in  hodiernum  diem.  Nam  omncs  insula},  do  jnro 
"  antiquo,  ex  donationo  Constantini,  qui  cam  fundavit  et  dotavit, 
"  dicuntur  ad  Eomanam  Ecclesiam  pertinere." — Metalog.  4,  42,  opp. 
cd.  Giles,  v.,  20G.  The  embarrassment  of  Irish  writers  in  later  times, 
as  regards  the  Bull,  was,  as  one  might  expect,  considerable.  Stcph(;n 
White  (^Apologia  pro  Hibernia,  cd.  Kelly,  Dublin,  1849,  p.  184),  and 
Lynch,  or  Grantianus  Lucius  (Cambrensis eversus,  Dubl.,  1850,  ii.,  434 
eq.),  struggle  in  vain  to  prove  it  a  bungling  forgery.  Lanigan,  on  tho 
other  baud  {Eccles.  History  of  Ireland,  iv.,  IGO),  admits  its  genuine- 
ness, and  gives  vent  to  some  sharp  criticisms  on  the  pope  and  his 
Bull.  M'Geoghehan  {Ilistoire  de  I'Irlande,  Paris,  1758,  i.,  4G2) 
foregoes  the  appeal  to  the  Donation  of  Constantine,  and  contents 
himself  with  saying,  "Le  Pai)e,  qui  etait  no  son  sujet,  lui  accorda 
'•  sans  peine  sa  demande ;  ct  la  libertc  d'une  nation  enti6re  fut  sacrifieo 
"  a  I'ambition  do  I'un  par  la  complaisance  dc  I'autre." 

2  The  Abbe  Goss^Iin  {Pouvoir  du  Pape  sur  les  Souverains,  ii.,  247, 
cd.  de  Louvain)  has  attempted  to  show  that  pope  Hadrian,  properly 
speaking,  did  not  in  tho  least  intend  to  di.spose  of  Ireland  in  his 
Bull ;  that  h(!  claimed  nothing  but  a  purely  splritiial  jurisdiction  in 
Ireland,  merely  the  right  to  demand  the  payment  of  Peter's  pence. 
His  reasons  for  this  view  are  very  weak,  and  he  omits  to  notice 
evidence  which  is  quite  decisive.    He  omits  to  notice  that  Hadrian 


',    THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  139 

•'  The  Roman  clergy  with  their  Donation  of  Con- 
stantine  had,  on  the  whole,  obtained  their  object  very 
successfully  ;  attempts  were  now  made  in  Naples  to 
advance  the  interests  of  the  clergy  there  by  similar 
means.  In  a  chronicle  of  the  church  of  St.  Maria  del 
Principio,  it  is  stated  that  Constantine  gave  the  whole 
of  the  kingdom  of  Sicily  on  both  sides  of  the  straits, 
along  with  other  possessions,  to  pope  Sylvester ;  the 
town  of  Naples  was  the  only  thing  which  he  reserved 
as  imperial  property.  Accordingly  the  two,  Con- 
stantine and  Sylvester,  came  to  Naples  together,  and, 
seeing  that  Constantine  very  often  heard  mass  here  in 
the  Episcopal  Church,  he  attached  fourteen  prebend- 
aries to  it,  and  endowed  these  with  landed  and  other 
property,  and  founded  the  dignity  of  a  cimeliarch.^ 

Bays,  "  that  the  people  of  Ireland  are  to  accept  and  hononr  the  king 
"  (who  up  to  this  time  had  not  had  tlie  most  remote  right  to  the 
"  island)  as  their  lord  and  master  (sicut  Doininum  veneretur)."  Ho 
omits  all  notice  of  the  statement  of  John  of  Salisbury,  who  wa^ 
better  informed  than  any  other  man  respecting  the  whole  circum- 
stance, and  respecting  the  meaning  of  the  Bull,  which  had  been  in- 
troduced by  himself.  Lastly,  he  omits  to  notice  the  fact  that 
Hadrian  formallj' invested  king  Ilonry  with  the  rights  of  a  suzerain 
by  means  of  a  ring  which  he  sent  him.  The  words,  that  all  islands 
belong  "ad  jus  beati  Petri  et  SS.  Rom.  Ecdcsi.T,"  Gosselin  persists 
in  under.standing  of  the  spiritual  jurisdiction  of  the  pope,  quite  in 
defiance  of  the  use  of  words  in  the  lauguag  >  of  that  time. 

1  Parascandolo,  Memorie  stor.  crit  diylomatiche  della  chiesa  di 
Napoli,  1847,  p.  212.  The  chronicle  appears  to  belong  to  the  end  of 
the  twelfth  or  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century.  [Cimeiiarch, 
tutfirjTuapxic,  treasurer.] 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  140 

Meanwhile,  in  Italy  at  this  time  the  Roman  story  of 
Constantine's  Donation  was  rejected  without  scruple, 
so  soon  as  it  clashed  with  maintained  rights  or  with 
political  plans.  In  Rome,  in  the  year  1105,  the  monks 
of  the  monastery  Farfa,  which  had  been  endowed 
with  great  privileges  by  the  emperors,  contended 
with  some  of  the  Roman  nobility  for  the  possession 
of  a  certain  castle.  The  latter  upheld  the  title  of  the 
Roman  Church  (on  which  their  own  title  was  supposed 
to  depend)  to  the  disputed  property,  and  traced  back 
this  title  to  the  Donation  of  Constantino.  Thereupon 
the  monks,  without  directly  denying  the  genuineness 
of  the  document,  brought  forward  a  detailed  historical 
proof  that  the  document  could  not  possibly  mean  a 
Donation  of  Italy,  for  the  emperors  who  had  suc- 
ceeded Constantino  had  always  possessed  and  ex- 
ercised in  full  their  dominion  over  Italy.  Accordingly, 
Constantino  could  only  have  given  spiritual  rights  to 
the  popes  in  Italy.^  In  Rome  itself  at  that  time 
(under  Paschal  II,  1099-1118,)  the  pope  was  so  far 
from  being  recognised  as  the  temporal  sovereign  of  a 
distinct  territory,  that  the  monks  with  their  abbot 
felt  able,  without  contradiction,  to  state  before  the 
Roman  judges  as  a  recognised  fact — that  temporal 
power  and  government  did  not  befit  the  pope,  for  it 

1  Uialorim  Faifenu*,  In  Pcrtz  Monum.,  xiii.,  671^, 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  141 

was  not  the  keys  of  an  earthly  kingdom,  but  only  the 
keys  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven  that  he  had  received 
from  God. 

About  forty  years  later  commenced  the  great 
political  and  religious  movements  in  Italy  generally, 
and  the  efforts  of  the  Arnoldiats,  in  Rome  in  parti- 
cular, which  aimed  ^  at  placing  the  control  of  the 
imperial  dignity  in  the  hands  of  a  rabble  in  Rome — 
a  town  populace  constantly  augmented  by  the  influx 
of  people  from  the  country,  but  which  was  supposed 
to  represent  the  true  Romans  and  heirs  of  the  old 
Roman  empire.  Thence  began  the  first  misunder- 
standings between  the  Hohenstaufen,  Frederick  I., 
and  the  Papal  Chair.  It  was  inevitable  that  the 
Donation  of  Constantine  should  again  play  an  im- 
portant part.  When  a  Roman  faction,  stirred  up  by 
Arnold  of  Brescia,  was  purposing  to  arrogate  to  itself 
the  control  of  the  city,  the  papal  party  in  Rome  had 
appealed  to  the  Donation,  according  to  which  it 
appeared  that  Rome  belonged  to  the  pope.  In  op- 
position to  this  Wetzel,  an  Arnoldist,  maintained  in 
his  letter  to  Frederick,  in  the  year  1 152,  that  "  that  lie 
"  and  heretical  fable  of  Constantine's  having  conceded 

1  [That  to  Arnold  of  Brescia  himself  much  higher  aims,  and  a 
mucli  nobler  policy,  must  be  attributed  than  arc  hero  allowed  to  lu« 
followers,  would  perhaps  scarcely  be  denied.] 


142  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

*'  the  imperial  rlgJ  ts  in  the  city  to  pope  Sylvester, 
"  was  now  so  thoroughly  exposed,  that  even  day 
"  labourers  and  wo  nen  were  able  to  confute  the  most 
"  learned  on  the  pcint,  and  the  pope  and  his  cardinals 
"  would  not  venture  to  show  themselves  for  shame."  ^ 
And  in  fact,  Eugenius  III.  had  been  obliged  to 
leave  Rome^  (for  the  second  time)  in  the  beginning 
of  the  year  1150,  md  remained  until  December  of 
1 1 52  in  Segni  and  Ferentino.  It  is,  however,  re- 
markable that  the  arguments  with  which  the  Arnoldist 
and  his  Roman  day  labourers  and  housewives  knew 
so  well  how  to  demolish  the  lie  about  the  Donation  of 
Constantine,  themselves  in  their  turn  rested  upon 
errors  and  fictions.  Constantine,  says  Wetzel,  was  a 
Christian  already,  and  therefore  had  been  baptized 
before  the  time  of  Sylvester,  consequently  the  whole 
story  of  the  Donation  to  Sylvester  is  untrue.  As 
proof  of  this  a  passage  is  quoted  out  of  an  apo- 
cryphal ^  letter  of  pope  Melchiades,  which  is  found  in 

1  Ap.  Martcnc,  ampl.  coll.,  ii.,  556. 

2  [On  the  first  occasion  (March,  114G)  Engonins  retired  first  to 
Viti'rbo,  and  thence  to  Sienna ;  then,  after  a  year's  delay,  to  France, 
where  he  became  little  more  than  the  mouthpiece  of  St.  Bernard. 
He  n.turncd  to  Italy  towards  the  end  of  1148,  but  to  Viterbo  and 
Tuseulum,  not  to  Rome.  It  was  not  till  the  end  of  1149  that  he  onco 
more  entered  the  capital,  and  then  only  as  its  bishop,  not  as  its 
sovereign.] 

3  A  document  much  used,  sometimes  under  the  title  Libellm  de 
Munificentia  Conslanlini. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  143 

the  pscudo-Isidorian  collection,  and  Is  also  made  use 
of  by  Gratian ;  and  it  is  proved  from  the  Historia 
tripartita  (of  Cassiodore)  that  Constantine  was  a 
Christian  before  his  entry  into  Rome.  ^ 

In  spite  of  this  contradiction  in  Rome  itself,  the 
Donation  was  made  the  basis  of  higher  and  constantly 
increasing  claims  at  this  time,  and,  indeed,  as  early 
as  the  close  of  the  eleventh  century.  Already  in  th(i 
time  of  Gregory  VII.,  or  immediately  after  him  under 
Urban  II.,  the  inclusion  of  the  Donation  in  the  new 
collection  of  rights  and  title-deeds  showed  clearly  an 
intention  of  making  an  extensive  use  of  it.  This  was 
now  done  by  Ansclm  of  Lucca,  cardinal  Deusdedit, 
and  the  compilator  of  the  collection  which  is  known 
under  the  name  of  Ivo  of  Chartres.^  On  the  other 
hand,  Burchard  of  Worms,  in  his  collection,  which 
was  made  between  10 12  and  1023,  has  not  yet  in- 
cluded it.  Specially  surprising  is  the  change  which 
is  made  in  Ansclm's  work  of  the  ^^ or'"  into  a  most 
significant  and  comprehensive  " ajid."  lie  has,  "quod 

3  "Wetzel  docs  not  appeal,  as  one  wouM  have  expected  him  to 
have  done,  to  the  baptism  in  Nicomcdia  at  the  end  of  the  emperor's 
life,  as  related  in  the  Tripcrtita  from  Eusohius.  No  doubt  the  idea 
of  the  baptism  in  Rome  was  too  deci)ly  rooted  in  the  minds  of  tho 
liomaos  to  allow  him  to  make  such  an  appeal. 

1  More  exact  references  in  Antonius  Augustinus,  De  Emend.  Grat. 
0pp.,  cd.  Luccns,  iii.,  41,  in  the  notes. 


144  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

"  Const.  Imp.  Papae  concessit  coronam  et  omnem 
"  regiam  dignitatem  in  urbe  Romana,  et  Italia,  et  vt 
" partibus  occidmtalibus."  What  practical  meaning 
Roman  ecclesiastics  intended  to  give  to  these  last 
words,  appears  from  a  statement  made  by  Otto  of 
Freisingen.  In  his  chronicle,  which  was  composed 
between  1 143  and  1 146,  he  asserts  the  authenticity  ^ 
of  the  Donation,  and  relates  how  Constantine,  after 
conferring  the  imperial  insignia  on  the  pope,  went 
to  Byzantium,  adding  that  "  for  this  reason  the 
**  Roman  Church  maintains  that  the  western  king- 
"  doms  have  been  given  over  to  her  possession  by 
"  Constantine,  and  demands  tribute  from  them  to 
"  this  day,  with  the  exception  of  the  two  kingdoms  of 
*'  the  Franks  "  (that  is,  the  French  and  the  German 
one).  The  defenders  of  the  empire,  however,  objected 
"  that  in  each  transaction  Constantine  had  not  con- 
"  ferred  the  empire  on  the  popes,  but  had  merely 
"  chosen  them  as  spiritual  fathers." 

To  the  best  of  my  knowledge  there  are  no  papal 
documents  extant,  with  the  exception  of  the  one 
about  Ireland,  in  which  the  payment  of  tribute  is 
demanded  of  the  whole  realm  on  the  strength  of  the 
Donation  of  Constantine.  Just  the  very  pope  who 
went  the  greatest  lengths  in  such  demands,  Gregory 

I  Chron,  3,  3  ap.,  Urstis.  i.,  80. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  145 

VII.,  never  appealed  to  the  Donation  in  making  them, 
but  to  feudal  rights  of  the  Roman  See  dating  from  an 
earlier  period ;  and  he  attempted  ^  (without  result, 
however),  to  exact  tribute  from  France.  And  yet, 
as  appears  from  his  letters,^  Gregory  had  had  the 
archives  thoroughly  searched,  in  order  to  discover 
documents,  from  which  a  feudal  dependence  of  the 
several  kingdoms  and  countries  upon  the  Roman 
Chair  might  be  claimed. 

However,  the  ninth  canon  in  the  Dictatns,  which, 
though  not  proceeding  from  Hildebrand  himself,  arc, 
nevertheless,  the  work  of  his  time,  is  unmistakeably 
borrowed  from  the  Donation  ;  "the  pope  alone  may 
"  make  use  of  the  imperial  insignia."  Serious  stress 
was  never  laid  on  this  point.  The  popes  did  not 
assume  the  sceptre,  sword,  and  ball.  Boniface  VIII. 
is  the  only  pope  who,  according  to  one  account,  is 
said  to  have  done  so  at  once  at  the  celebration  of  the 
Jubilee  in  the  year  1300.  But  if  Constantino  had 
really  ceded  Italy  and  the  West  to  the  pope,  it 
appeared  to  follow  naturally  and  fairly  that  the  empire 
in  its  whole  extent  of  territory  was  a  present,  a  free 
gift  of  the  popes,  and  therefore  (according  to  the  then 
prevalent  ideas  and  policy)  a  fief  of  the  Roman  Chair, 

1  Cf.  Mnratorl,  AntichitA  Jtal.,  Firenzo,  1833,  x.  126  sq. 

2  £pist   23.  lib.  8. 

13 


146  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE, 

the  emperor  being  vassal  and  the  pope  suzerain.  And 
then,  if  not  the  kingdom  of  Germany,  at  any  rate  that 
of  Italy  with  the  Lombard  crown  would  be  reckoned 
as  a  papal  fief.  Certainly,  since  A.D.  800,  since  the 
first  founding  of  the  Western  empire,  a  broad  way 
had  been  made  towards  this  end.  At  that  time  the 
pope  prostrated  himself  to  the  ground  before  the 
newly-crowned  emperor,  and  did  obeisance  to  him  in 
the  form  of  homage  paid  to  the  old  emperors.  1 
Now,  however,  a  picture  was  placed  in  the  Lateran 
palace  which  represented  the  emperor  Lothair  doing 
homage  to  the  pope,^  with  verses,  in  which  it  was 
stated  in  so  many  words  that  the  king  had  first 
confirmed  the  rights  of  the  city  before  the  gates  of 
Rome,  and  had  then  become  the  vassal  (homo)  of  the 
pope,  whereupon  he  received  the  crown  as  a  gift  ^ 
from  the  latter.  At  the  same  time  many  Romans 
declared  that  the  German  kings  had  possessed  the 
Roman  empire,^  no  less  than  the  Italian  kingdom, 

1  Annalcs  Laurissenses  in  Pcrtz,  I,  138;  "Et  post  laudcs  ab 
*'Apostoli(0  more  antiquorum  principum  adoratus  CKt." 

2  [Com])are  tlic  gross  raisreprosentations  of  the  circumstances  of 
the  council  of  Florence  in  tlic  iassi  reLevi  on  the  gates  of  St  Peter's 
at  Home. — Maiiiott's  2'tslimony  of  the  Catacombs,  London,  1870,  p. 
104,  etc  ] 

4  lUdevic,  i.,  10;  Murat.,  vi  ,  748. 

2  Imperiuni  I'lhis.  'Vhv.  imperial  dignity  itself  the  pope  could 
rot  coiifi-r  on  tin;  streni^th  of  the  Donation  of  Constantiue,  which 
contained  nothing  about  it,  but  oa)f  (as  the  liomans  said)  as  the 


THE  DONA  TION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  147 

merely  as  a  present  from  the  popes.  From  this  arose 
that  storm  of  dissatisfaction  which  broke  out  in 
Germany  in  the  year  1 1 57,  when  a  letter  from  Hadrian 
to  Frederick  Barbarossa  spoke  of  "  beneficia  "  which 
he  had  granted  to  the  emperor,  or  could  still  grant, 
and  expressly  called  the  imperial  crown  itself  such  a 
bencficium,  i.  e.,  a  feod,  as  it  was  understood  at  the 
imperial  court.  Hadrian  could  easily  justify  himself, 
by  saying  that  he  had  used  the  word  in  its  ordinary, 
not  in  its  technical  and  political  sense ;  that  he  had 
intended  to  say  nothing  more  than  that  it  was  he  who 
had  placed  the  crown  on  the  emperor's  head.^  But, 
in  Germany,  men  mistrusted  the  Roman  clergy,  and 
thebitter  feeling  remained,  as  we  find  provost  Gerhoh 
of  Reigersburg  expressing  it  at  the  time  in  sharp 
words,  a  man  otherwise  thoroughly  devoted  to  the 

organ  of  the  Roman  rcpiiblic  and  in  their  name,  for  they  considered 
themselves  as  the  heirs  of  the  old  populus  Konianns ;  or  else,  as  tho 
defenders  of  the  Donation  supposed,  as  tlio  supreme  Head  of  tho 
city  of  Rome,  to  which  the  right  of  electing  tho  emperor,  originally 
inherent  in  the  Roman  repuLlic,  came  as  a  matter  of  course.  Ilrnce, 
although  the  empire  itself  was  no  fief  of  the  Roman  Clinir  (for  wliich 
reason  it  was  never  actually  given  away),  nevertheless  it  was  possible 
to  maintain  in  Rome,  that  the  intperium  urlis  and  tlic  kingdom  rf 
Italy  belonged  to  the  pope  alone  to  confer,  seeing  that  he  had 
received  both  from  Conslantine,  and  that  he  would  confer  thrm 
only  as  fiefs,  reserving  his  (rwn  supremacy  ;  but  that  without  these 
two  things  there  was  no  empire. 

1  "  Per  hoc  vocabulum  'touLulimus  '  ail  aliud  inlclleiiiaus  quam 
'  un|>u&uiuut».' " 


1.18  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTTNE. 

Papal  See.  He  says  that  the  custom  (which  of  course 
rested  for  support  on  the  Donation  of  Constantine)  of 
the  emperor  holding  the  pope's  stirrup  had  prompted 
the  Romans  to  paint  these  offensive  pictures,  in  which 
kings  or  emperors  were  represented  as  vassals  of  the 
popes ;  from  which  they  gained  noticing,  excepting 
the  embittered  feelings  and  hard  v/ords  of  temporal 
princes.  ^  If  the  popes,  by  allowing  such  pictures, 
claimed  to  be  emperors  and  lords  of  emperors,  making 
the  emperors  their  vassals,  this  was  nothing  else  than 
to  destroy  the  power  ordained  of  God  and  to  go 
against  the  divine  order. 

However,  whatever  meaning  and  extent  of  applica- 
tion the  Roman  clergy  might  give  to  the  supposed 
Donation  ;  whatever  new  collections  of  laws  might 
contain  on  the  subject,  the  historians  of  this  and  the 
following  period  are  wont,  when  they  mention  the 
Donation  at  all,  cautiously  to  confine  it  within  tolerably 
narrow  limits.  Sicard  of  Cremona  gives  a  very 
detailed  account  of  the  fabulous  baptism  of  Constan- 
tinc,2  but  quotes  nothing  more  than  this  from  the 
Donation,  that  the  ^mperor  gave  Sylvester  regal 
privileges,  and   ordained  that  all  bishops  should  be 

2  Trcati.sc  f)f  (he  provost  Gevlioh  of  rvcigcrsburg,  De  Invesliga- 
(ione  AiUtchrinU,  edited  by  fcjtulz,  Vicima,  1858,  pp. '64,  5G. 

3  In  Murutori,  vii.,  664. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  1^9 

subject  to  the  pope;  but  he  does  not  go  on  to  explain 
the  nature  of  these  regal  privileges.  Romuald  of 
Salerno  knows  and  mentions  merely  this  {ecclesiastical 
supremacy.^  Robert  Abolant  confines  himself  to 
mentioning  a  privilege  bequeathed  by  Constantine 
to  the  popes,  without  any  farther  statement.-  A 
hundred  years  later,  an  historian  so  entirely  devoted 
to  papal  interests  as  Tolomeo  of  Lucca  quotes  nothing 
beyond  this  from  the  Donation,  that  the  cmpcior  had 
conferred  on  certain  Roman  ecclesiastics  (the  cardinals 
of  a  later  age)  the  rights  and  prerogatives  ot  the 
Roman  senate.^  And  while  of  the  papal  biographers 
Bernard  Guidonis  is  entirely  silent  about  the  Dona- 
tion, the  dominion  over  the  city  of  Rome,  and  the 
conferring  of  the  imperial  insignia,  is  all  that  Amalrich 
Augerii  quotes  from  it.  ^  On  the  other  hand  the 
Spaniard,  Lucas  B.  of  Tuy  (about  A.D.  1236),  repre- 
sents the  dominion  over  Italy  (rcgnum  Italia:)  as 
having  been  comerred  on  the  pope.^  His  conten:po- 
rary,  the  Belgian  Balduin,  monk  in  the  Monastery 
Ninnove,  restricts  Constantinc's  gift  once  more  to  the 
dominion  over  Rome.  ® 

1  Mtirntori,  vii ,  V9. 

2  Chriiuol<gm,  Ticcis,  IC^O,  p.  49. 

3  Uiil.  t.ccl ,  5,   ■,  4,  in  Aluiuloii,  xi.,  825. 

4  A|).  Eccnni  ,  ii.,  1GG5. 

5  ('or/ius  CkronicoTum  Flandrirr^  rd.  dc  Smrt,  ii  ,  613. 

6  Ch/onicon  Mundi^  up.  bthotti  llu}i.  JUutlr.,  iv.,  36. 


150  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

All  the  more  remarkable  on  this  account  is  the  dis- 
cussion in  which,  at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  a 
man  who,  ia  a  certain  sense,  belonged  to  both  nations, 
engaged,  Gottfried,  a  German,  educated  in  Bamberg, 
chaplain  and  secretary  to  the  three  Hohenstaufen 
sovereigns — Conrad,  Frederick,  and  Henry  VI., — who 
ended  his  days  as  a  canon  at  Viterbo,  states  in  his 
Pantheon,  ^  which  he  dedicated  to  pope  Urban  III., 
A.D.  1 1 86,  that,  in  order  to  secure  greater  peace  to 
the  Church,  Constantine  had  withdrawn  with  all  his 
pomp  to  the  Greeks,  to  Byzantium,  and  had  given  the 
pope  regal  privileges,  and,  on  the  strength  of  them,  as 
it  would  appear,  Rome,  Italy,  and  Gaul.  (This  is  the 
first  time  that  Gaul  is  expressly  mentioned  as  in- 
cluded in  the  Donation.)  Thereupon  he  makes  the 
"  supporters  of  the  empire,"  and  the  "  defenders  of 
"  the  Church,"  state  their  pros  and  cons.  The  former 
point  to  the  historical  fact,  that  Constantine  divided 
his  kingdom  between  his  sons,  and  to  the  well-known 
texts  in  the  Bible.  The  latter,  however,  answer,  that 
the  will  of  God  is  declared  in  the  very  fact  of  the 
Donation  ;  that  God  would  allow  His  Church  to  have 
fallen  into  the  error  of  a  possession  to  which  it  had  no 
right,  v/as  not  to  be  supposed.  Gottfried  himself, 
however,  docs  not  venture  to  decide  ;  he  leaves  the 
solution  of  this  question  to  the  powers  that  be. 

1.  Ap.  Pistori,  ii.,  208. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  151 

In  the  Otia  Impcriala  (leisure  hours),  which 
Gervasius  of  Tilbury  wrote  for  the  emperor  Otho  IV. 
about  the  year  121 1,  it  is  stated  that  Constantine 
had  conferred  royal  power  over  the  countries  of  the 
West  on  Sylvester,  without  intending  to  transfer  to 
him  along  with  it  either  the  kingdom  itself  or  the 
empire,  which  he  reserved  for  himself.  But  the  giver 
is  superior  to  the  receiver,  and  the  royal  and  imperial 
power  is  derived  immediately  from  God.  God,  he 
says,  is  the  creator  of  the  empire,  but  the  emperor  is 
the  creator  of  the  papal  supremacy.  ^ 

On  the  whole,  however,  the  authority  of  the 
Donation  from  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century 
onwards  was  in  the  ascendant;  and  belief  in  it,  and  in 
the  wide  extent  of  territory  which  Constantine  in- 
cluded in  it,  grew  stronger.  Gratian  himself  did  not 
include  it,  but  it  was  soon  inserted  as  "palea,"^  and 
thus  found  an  entry  into  all  schools  of  canonical 
jurisprudence,  so  that  from  this  time  forth  the  la\vyers 
were  the  most  influential  publishers  and  defenders  of 
the  fiction.  The  language  of  the  popes  also  was 
henceforward  more  confident.  "  Omne  rcgnum  Oc- 
"  cidcntis    ei    (Silvcstro)    tradidit    ct    dimisit,"  ^  says 

1  Ap.  Leibnit,  55.  Brunsvic,  i.,  882. 

2  But  with  the  moru  moderate  twprcssion,  "  Italiam  seu  occi- 
"  dontalcs  regiones,"  not  with  tho  unlimited  "  ei"  of  Anselm. 

3  Sermo  de  S.  Silvcitro,  Ojara,  Vcnetiis,  1578,  i.,  97. 


152  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

Innocent  III.  (1198-1216).  Gregory  IX.  (1214-1227) 
followed  this  out  to  its  consequences  in  a  way  surpas- 
sing anything  that  had  been  done  before,  when  he 
represented  to  the  emperor  Frederick  II.,  the  ablest 
and  most  formidable  opponent  who  had  yet  sustained 
the  lists  against  the  Roman  See,  that  Constantino 
had,  along  with  the  imperial  insignia,  given  over 
Rome  with  the  duchy  and  the  impcriuni  to  the  care  of 
the  popes  for  ever.  Whereupon  the  popes,  without 
diminishing  in  any  degree  whatever  the  substance  of 
their  jurisdiction,  established  the  tribunal  of  the 
empire,  transferred  it  to  the  Germans,  and  are  wont 
to  concede  the  power  of  the  sword  to  the  emperors  at 
their  coronation.  ^ 

This  was  as  much  as  to  say  that  the  imperial 
authority  had  its  sole  origin  in  the  popes,  could  be 
enlarged  or  narrowed  at  their  good  pleasure,  and  that 
the  pope  could  call  each  emperor  to  account  for  the 
use  of  the  power  entrusted  to  him.  But  the  highest 
rung  of  the  ladder  was  as  yet  not  reached.  This  was 
first  achieved  by  Gregory's  successor.  Innocent  IV., 
when  the  synod  of  Lyons  resulted  in  the  deposition  of 
Frederick  ;  in  which  act  this  pope  went  beyond  all  his 
predecessors  in  the  increase  of  his  claim,  and  the 
extension  of  the  authority  of  Rome.     It  is  an  error, 

1  Ap.  Raynald.,  ad  annum  1236,  24,  p.  481,  cd.  Eom. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  153 

Innocent  declares,  in  the  year  1245,  to  suppose  that 
Canstantine  was  the  first  to  confer  temporal  power 
on  the  Roman  Sec ;  rather  Christ  Himself  entrusted 
to  Peter  and  his  successors  both  powers,  the  sacerdotal 
and  the  royal,  and  the  reign  of  both  kingdoms,  the 
earthly  and  the  heavenly.  Constantino,  therefore, 
had  merely  resigned  an  unlawfully  possessed  power 
into  the  hands  of  its  legitimate  possessor,  the  Church, 
and  had  received  it  back  again  from  the  Church.  ^ 

Another  half  century,  however,  elapsed  before 
theologians  were  found  to  reduce  this  new  doctrine 
to  a  formal  shape,  and  to  furnish  it  with  the  usual 
scholastic,  and  in  such  cases  very  elastic  apparatus. 
Under  the  influence  of  circumstances  which  took 
place  towards  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and 
of  the  spirit  in  which  a  Martin  IV.  and  a  Boniface 
VIII.  ruled,  the  use  which  had  been  made  of  the 
Donation  of  Constantine  assumed  a  different  form. 
The  Dominican,  Tolomeo  of  Lucca,  author  of  the 

1  Cod  Epist.  Viidean.,  4957,  49  ;  Codex  llndobon  Philol.,  61,  f.  TO — 
306,  f.  83.  In  Raiimcr,  Geschichte  der  Ilokenaliu/en,  iv  ,  178  (first 
edition),  who  quotes  the  Latin  text.  The  document  was  not  known 
in  the  centuries  immediately  following,  though  the  fact  of  Innocent 
IV.  having  taken  up  such  a  position  was  well  known,  for  Alvaro 
Pelayo  says  {De  I'lanclu  EceUsiee,  i.,  43,  ahout  the  year  1350), 
"CoUatio  autcm  Constantini  potius  fuit  cessio  quara  collatio;  sic 
"ctiani  fertur  Innocentius  IV.  diiisse  inipcraturi  Frcderico,  quem 
«deposuit." 


154  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

two  last  books  of  the  work  Dc  Rcghnine  Principtini, 
the  first  two  books  of  which  are  by  Thomas  Aquhias, 
goes  beyond  ^  his  predecessors,  and  explains  the 
Donation  as  a  formal  abdication  of  Constantine  in 
favour  of  Sylvester ;  ^  and  connecting  with  this  other 
historical  circumstances  which  are  either  inventions 
or  misconceptions,  he  thence  draws  the  conclusion 
that  the  power  of  all  temporal  princes  derives  its 
strength  and  efficacy  solely  from  the  spiritual  power 
of  the  popes.  There  was  no  halting  half  way  ;  and 
immediately  afterwards,  in  the  contest  of  Boniface 
VIII.  with  Philip  of  France,  the  Augustinian  monk,  ^ 

1  These  last  two  books  wore  written  subsequent  to  1293  ;  for  the 
putting  to  death  of  Alclolf  of  Nassau,  by  Albert,  Ls  mentioned  as  an 
event  whieh  had  already  taken  place. 

2  "Piiino  quidcra  de  Constantino  apparet,  qui  Silvestroinimperio 
•'cessit." — De  Regimine  I'rincipum,  3,  10.  Opuscula  Th  mx  Aquin., 
Lugd,  15G2,  p.  232. 

3  If  the  treatise  Be  Ulraque  Potestate  (which  is  found  in  Goldast, 
IJunarchia,  ii.)  were  from  the  pen  of  J[*]gidius,  he  must  have  pro- 
fessed the  very  opposite  principles  in  the  interest  of  king  Philip. 
But,  seeing  that  ^gidius,  as  archbishop  of  Bourges,  is  found 
among  those  prelates  who  went  to  Rome  against  Philip's  will  to  the 
touni  il  summoned  by  Boniface,  and  thereupon  was  punished  with 
confiscation,  one  may  be  quite  certain  that  the  writing  in  question 
was  not  composed  by  him.  In  his  genuine  and  still  unjjrinted 
work,  the  substance  of  which  is  given  by  Charges  Jourdain,  fJn 
Ouvnige  Inrdit  de  GilUs  de  Home,  Paris,  1858,  iEgiilius  says  bluntly 
cnougli,  '•  I'atit  quod  onmia  temporaiia  simt  sub  domino  Ecclesi;0 
"  tolIocaUi,  et  si  non  de  facto,  quoniam  multi  forte  huio  juri 
"  rebcllaulur,  dejure  tameu  et  cxdebito  temporaiia  ^ummo pontilici 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  155 

Acgidius  Colonna  of  Rome,  whom  the  pope  had 
nominated  to  the  archbishopric  of  Bourges,  drew  the 
natural  conclusions  without  the  sHghtest  disguise  in  a 
work  which  he  dedicated  to  his  patron.  Towards  the 
middle  of  the  century  two  theologians  of  the  papal 
court,  Agostino  Trionfo  and  Alvaro  Pelayo,  the  one 
an  Italian,  the  other  a  Spanish  minorite,  took  the 
same  line  of  argument.  This  theory,  reduced  to  its 
simplest  terms,  runs  thus  :  Christ  is  Lord  of  the  whole 
world  ;  at  His  departure  He  left  this  dominion  to 
His  representatives,  Peter  and  his  successors;  there- 
fore the  fullness  of  all  spiritual  and  temporal  power 
and  dominion,  the  union  of  all  rights  and  privileges, 
lies  in  the  hands  of  the  pope.  Every  monarch,  even 
the  most  powerful,  possesses  only  so  much  power  and 
territory  as  the  pope  has  transferred  to  him,  or  finds 
good  to  allow  him.  Trionfo  says  without  reservation, 
that  if  an  emperor,  like  Constantine,  has  given 
temporal  possessions  to  Sylvester,  this  is  merely  a 
restitution  of  what  had  been  stolen  in  an  unjust  and 
tyrannical  way.  ^ 

This  theory,  utterly  unknown  to  the  earlier  popes 
and  to  the  whole  of  Christendom,  was  invented  in  the 

"sunt  Rul>jecta,  a  quo  jure  ct  a  quo  dcbito  nullatcnus  possunt 
"  absolvi,"  p.  13.  • 

1  Summa  de  EccUaia,  94, 1. 


156  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

first  instance  in  order  to  meet  the  objections  to  the 
Donation  of  Constantine.  For  there  were  not  wanting 
persons  who  declared  that  Constantine  had  no  power 
to  make  such  a  suicidal  Donation,  so  ruinous  to  the 
empire.  An  emperor  could  not  tear  in  pieces  the 
empire,  for  this  was  in  direct  contradiction  to  his 
office.  1 

The  French  advocate,  Peter  Dubois,  at  Coutances 
declared,  in  his  opinion  about  the  Bull  of  Boniface 
VIII.  to  Philip,  that  the  Donation  was  from  the  first 
legally  null  and  void  ;  all  lawyers  were  unanimous  in 
maintaining  this,  only  the  very  long  prescription 
conferred  on  it  at  the  present  time  a  legal  validity.  ^ 

Contemporaneously  with  him  the  Dominican,  John 
Quidort  of  Paris,  magistcr  of  the  theological  faculty 
there  (died  A.D.  1306),  in  his  book  On  the  Regal  and 
Papal  Pozver,  contended  against  the  Donation  of  Con- 
stantine, for,  as  all  lawyers  maintained,  the  emperor, 

1  Brought  out  more  in  detail  by  Dante,  for  example,  in  the  De 
Jlonorchia,  3,  10;  Opere  Minori,  cd.  di  Fraticelli,  Fircnzc,  1857,  ii.j 
460.  ["Krgo  scindere  Imporium,  Impcratori  non  licet.  Si  ergo 
"  aliqua;  dignitates  per  C'on.stantinum  essent  alicnatre  (ut  dicunt) 
"  ab  Imperio,"  &c.  Here  the  sceptical  "  ut  dicunt"  shows  that 
Dante  duubted  tha  fact  as  well  as  the  rightfiduess  of  the  Donation. 
So  also  ^Dicunt  quidam  ndhuc,  quod  Constantinus  Imperator, 
"  mnndatus  a  lepra  intercesslone  Sylvestri,  tunc  siimml  pontificis, 
"  imperii  sc'drin,  scilicet  llomam,  donavit  ecclesi;e,  cum  mLdtii  aliia 
"  imperii  digiiitatibus."] 

2  lu  Dupuy,  Uisloirc  des  JJiffcrenla  I'reuvcs,  p.  4C. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  is? 

as  semper  Augustus,  could  only  enlarge,  not  dimmish 
the  empire  ;  on  the  contrary,  such  a  mutilation  of  the 
empire,  of  which  he  was  only  the  administrator, 
might  be  set  aside  by  each  of  his  successors  as  null 
and  void.  ^ 

From  the  time  that  the  harmonious  relations 
between  the  empire  and  the  papacy  were  destroyed, 
and  one  conflict  after  another  between  the  two 
powers  arose  with  a  sort  of  inherent  necessity,  and 
the  transfer  oi  the  papacy  into  French  hands  made 
the  restoration  of  due  relations  impossible  (that  is  to 
say,  from  the  death  of  Frederick  II.  to  the  death  of 
Lewis  the  Bavarian,  1250- 1346),  the  Donation  of 
Constantine  was  perpetually  mentioned  in  the  various 
memorials,  opinions,  and  apologies,  which  had 
reference  to  the  contest.  The  defenders  of  the 
imperial  cause,  appealing  to  the  prevailing  view  of 
the  civil  jurists,  usually  without  circumlocution  pro- 
nounced the  Donation  null  and  void  or  obsolete.  ^ 
One  of  the  ablest  and  acutest  contenders  for  the 
imperial  power,  the  Minorite  Marsiglio  of  Padua, 
docs    not    quite    know    how    he  stands  towards    it. 

2  Fratris  Johannis  de  Parisiis  Tract,  de  PotatuU  Reg.  et  Pap.,  in 
Schnnlii  Coll.  de  Jiirisdirtione  Imp.,  p.  208  sq. 

1  yo  the  aiitlior  of  tlii'  inquiry,  Whether  the  pope  had  power  to  enforce 
an  armistice  on  the  Emperor,  ileiiry  VII.,  in  Dycnnigcs,  Ada  JJennci 
Vu.,  ii.,  158. 

14 


IS8  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

"  Some  say  that  Constantine  conferred  the  privilege 
*'  on  the  pope,"  is  the  expression  he  uses  ;  but  he  then 
goes  on  to  say  that  those  in  the  papal  interest,  either 
because  the  document  was  not  clear  and  com- 
prehensive enough,  or  had  become  obsolete,  or  had 
never  been  legally  valid,  had  invented  this  entirely 
new  theory  of  a  universal,  spiritual,  and  temporal 
power  derived  immediately  from  Christ  the  God- 
man.  ^  But  even  this  Marsiglio  found  the  Donation 
of  Constantine  a  welcome  weapon  against  the 
primacy  of  the  Roman  See  in  general,  for  from  it 
it  was  very  easy  to  draw  the  conclusion  that  even  the 
ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  the  pope  over  all  other 
churches  and  bishops  rested  merely  on  the  grant  of 
the  emperor,  and  therefore  on  a  purely  human, 
perishable,  and  in  such  things  properly  invalid 
right,  2  Marsiglio  knew  well  how  to  turn  this  weak 
spot  to  good  account. 

In  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries  the  same 
amount  of  uncertainty  and  arbitrariness  as  before 
continued  to  prevail  in  the  definitions  respecting  the 
real  extent  of  the  Donation.  In  the  decretal  of  pope 
Nicholas  III.  merely  the  cession  of  Rome  to  the  popes 
by  Constantine  is  mentioned,  in  accordance  with  the 

1  DtfemoT  racis,  Heidelberg,  1599,  p.  101. 

2  I.  c,  p.  203. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  159 

special  object  of  this  document.  ^  In  the  form  of 
oath  which  the  emperor,  Henry  VII.,  had  to  take 
before  his  coronation,  Clement  V.  made  this  monarch 
swear  that  he  would  protect  and  uphold  all  the  rights 
which  the  emperors,  and  Constantine  of  course  first  of 
all,  had  granted  to  the  Roman  Church,  without 
however  going  on  to  state  in  what  these  rights 
consisted.^  John  XXII.,  in  his  refutation  of  Mar- 
siglio  of  Padua,  in  the  year  1327,  merely  mentions  in 
passing  the  fact  that  Constantine  had  given  up  the 
imperial  city  to  Sylvester,  quoting  the  words  of  the 
Donation.^  The  oldest,  or  second  oldest  commentator 
on  Dante,  the  compiler  of  the  Ottivio  Covimcnto,  who 
wrote  in  the  year  1333,  contents  himself  with  the 
indefinite  statement  that  Constantine  had  given 
Sylvester  "  all  the  dignity  of  the  empire."* 

The  author  of  the  commentary  on  Dante,  which 
was  written  in  the  year  1375,  states  quite  simply  that 
Constantine  gave  to  the  pope  and  the  Church  exactly 
what  the  pope  possesses  to  this  day  ;  *  in  opposition 

1  In  6  to,  1,  6, 17. 

2  Clementin,  9  de  jnr.  cj, 

3  In  Raynald,  a.    1327,  31. 

4  LOuimo  Commento  delta  divina  Commedia,  Pisn,  1827,  1355, 
Peter  Ann^oli  sJiys  very  much  the  same  (about  the  year  1316): 
"  Honor  impeiii  translatus  est  in  personam  Silvcstri  et  in  Kom. 
»♦  ecclesiam." — Aurea  Scriptura  Elueidatio,  Venetiis,  s.,  a.  f.  89. 

6  Chiote  topra  Vanle,  tcslo  inedito,  Fircozc,  184o,  p.  161. 


i6o  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

to  which  a  later  commentator,  Gulniforto  delH  Barrjigi, 
is  convinced  that  only  "  the  patrimony  in  Tuscany,  in 
"the  neighbourhood  of  Rome,"  is  included  in  the 
Donation.  ^ 

Rudolf  or  Pandulf  Colonna,^  canOn  of  Sienna,  and 
probably  a  Roman  by  birth  (fourteenth  century), 
gives  the  Donation  once  more  the  widest  extent  of 
meaning,  including  "  Rome,  Italy,  and  all  western 
"kingdoms."^  Nicolas  of  Clamenge  himself  says 
without  any  hesitation,  that  Constantine  conferred 
the  western  empire  on  the  Roman  Church,  and 
intended  the  cardinals  to  be  senators  of  it.  ^ 

In  France  efforts  were  made  to  secure  the  country 

1  T.o  Inferno,  col  corrunto  di  O.  d.  B.,  pubbl.  da  G.  Zacherorii, 
Firenzc,  1838.  p.  4ZG. 

2  Not  Raoul  de  Colonnicllc,  canon  cf  Charlrcp,  as  the  Ilis'oire 
lilUraire  de  la  France,  xxi ,  151,  represents  liiin.  The  His  oiie  itself 
notices  that  the  author  in  two  inanuscripts  of  his  .'imall  -work  is 
called  "  Canonicus  Senensis, '  and  only  in  one  "  Canonicns  Carno- 
"  tensis."  A  Frenchman  would  have  expressed  himself  differently 
respecting  the  "  translatio  imperii  a  Francis  ad  Gennanos,"  and 
would  not  have  contented  himself  with  saying  merely,  "llegnum 
"  mundi  translatum  est  ad  Germanos  vel  Teutonicos,"  p.  2.7.  The 
•whole  historical  view  is  taken  from  the  standpoint  of  a  rworoan 
ecclesiastic  ;  and  the  author  gives  one  pretty  clearly  to  understand 
that  he  is  a  Roman  ecclesiastic  by  noticing  that  pojie  Hadrian  was 
by  birth  "  de  regione  Viie  lata?,"  p.  202.  Moreover,  Iladulf  has 
coined  Marsilius  of  Padua,  or  the  latter  has  copied  him,  as  one  can 
nee  by  comiiariiig  them  in  Schardius,  p.  237  aud  p.  226. 

3  De  Translnione  Imperii,  in  Schardius,  p.  287. 

4  De  AnnaUi  non  SoLvcndis,  O^era,  ed.  Lyndius,  p.  92. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  i6i 

against  the  consequences  which  were  drawn,  or  might 
be  drawn,  from  the  extent  of  a  Donation  which 
embraced  the  whole  of  the  West.  The  Parisian 
theologian,  Jacob  Almain,  contends  therefore  that 
Constantine  had  no  power  whatever  to  transfer  the 
empire  to  the  pope  without  the  consent  of  the  people;  ^ 
and  in  tlie  second  place,  that  the  kingdom  of  Gaul  at 
any  rate  could  not  have  been  included,  for  the  Romans 
had  never  been  masters  of  Gaul,  and  the  people  of 
Gaul  had  never  of  their  own  accord  voted  for  sub- 
mitting to  Roman  rule.  lie  seems  to  have  had  no 
misgivings  as  to  the  extent  to  which  the  Celtic 
population  of  Gaul  had  allowed  themselves  to  become 
Romanized.  Almain  maintains  moreover  that  it  is 
the  common  opinion  of  doctors  generally,  that  as  a 
matter  of  fact  Constantine  did  not  resign  the  empire.  ^ 
Lupoid  of  Babenberg  in  the  fourteenth  century,  in 
his  treatise  On  the  Roman  E7n/>ire,  dedicated  to 
Baldwin,  archbishop  of  Treves  (1307-1354),  discusses 

1  "  Contraclicente  poptilo  occidcntali."  In  Gcrson,  0pp.  ii  ,  971, 
cf  p.  10G3. 

2  '•  Quod  rcsignaverit  impprium  occidonfnlp,  rmnqunm  Irgidir." 
It  is  remarkable  how  uncertain  pcoi>le  were  even  at  tliis  late  date 
(Almain  wrote  alioutthe  year  1510)  respecting  a  fact  so  unmislake- 
aliie.  If  ono  considers  to  what  a  hif;h  degree  of  hi>torical  discern- 
ni'  nt  som  '  writers  attained  even  as  early  as  the  twelfth  century,  one 
might  almost  say,  that  in  this  direction,  and  in  all  that  relates  to  a 
rational  understaiidiiig  of  history,  the  movement  for  three  whole 
cculuilcs  was  a  reUojj^rctibiuu  rather  thuii  au  aUvauce. 


i62  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

the  Donation  very  thoroughly  while  investigating  the 
question  whether  the  king  of  Rome  had  to  take  the 
oath  of  a  vassal  to  the  Roman  See.  ^  The  discussion 
with  him  means  nothing  less  than  the  decision  of  the 
still  wider  question,  whether  the  pope  is  really  the 
suzerain  of  the  German  empire  and  possessor  of  the 
dominium  directum,  so  that  in  all  countries  of  the 
empire  all  that  accrues  to  the  emperor  is  the  dominium 
utile.  Hence  we  once  more  meet  with  the  most 
different  opinions  as  to  the  validity  or  nullity  of  the 
Donation  ;  whereupon  Lupoid  remarks  that  all  canon- 
ists are  wont  to  maintain  that  the  Donation  is  legally 
valid  and  irrevocable.  But  then  the  other  kingdoms 
of  the  West  must  have  stood  in  the  same  relation  of 
vassaldom  to  the  pope.  Lupoid,  however,  is  keen- 
sighted  enough  to  see  through  the  unhistorical 
character  of  the  whole  fiction.  He  knows  that  the 
emperors  ruled  over  the  West  just  as  much  after 
Constantine's  time  as  before  it ;  and  he  himself  had 
found  passages  in  the  ecclesiastical  law-books  which 
speak  merely  of  giving  up  the  city  of  Rome  to  the 
pope.  In  the  end,  however  (belief  in  the  Donation 
was  at  that  time  still  so  powerful),  he  does  not  venture 
to  come  to  a  decision,  but  prefers  to  leave  the  settle- 
ment of  the  matter  to  higher  powers. 

1  la  Schard,  p.  391. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  163 

From  a  legal  point  of  view  the  matter  remained 
just  as  debatable  as  ever.  It  was  not,  however,  easy 
to  explain  how  Constantine,  as  elective  emperor  (and 
the  old  Roman  emperors  were  supposed  to  have  been 
elective  like  the  German  ones),  could  have  given  away- 
half  the  empire.  In  a  treatise  which,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  has  never  been  printed,  and  which  seems  to 
have  been  written  in  the  time  of  Lewis  of  Bavaria  in 
reference  to  his  contests,  ^  the  question  is  discussed, 
whether  in  virtue  of  his  election  the  emperor  can 
forthwith  and  immediately  exercise  control  over  the 
whole  realm,  or  whether  he  needs  to  be  empowered 
by  the  pope  to  do  so.  In  consequence  of  the 
Donation  of  Constantine,  says  the  author,  the  whole 
jurisdiction  of  the  emperor  became  dependent  on 
confirmation  by  the  pope ;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  it 
must  be  admitted  that  the  rights  and  constituent 
parts  of  the  realm  could  not  be  alienated  so 
arbitrarily,  without  the  consent  of  the  princes,  barons, 
and  high  officials.  ^ 

1  B'evit  Tiaetatut  de  Jurisdictione  Imperii  et  Auetorilate  Summi 
Pontficii  eirei  Impfium.  Cod.  Lat.  5832  in  the  Nulional  Library 
at  Munich,  f  121,  ff. 

2  "  Sod  contra  hoc  est,  quod  jura  imperii  alipnari  non  possunt 
"  qiium  feint  bona  rcpublitae,  qna5  nine  publlcis  officialibu4 
"dispensari  non  possunt,  ut  sunt  principcs  ct  barones  ct  quorum 
« interest  ai>i>iutere  mluisterio  impcriall  auUe  dirersorum  apicum." 
t  123. 


i64  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

On  the  other  hand  the  Donation  is  defended 
towards  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century  by  the 
Strasburg  parish  priest,  John  Hug  of  Schlettstadt, 
in  his  WagcnfiiJir  dcr  h.  Kvxhe  tmd  dcs  RomiscJiai 
Rcichs,  which  he  dedicated  to  cardinal  Raymond 
of  Gurk  (1493-1505).  Accursius,  he  says,  has 
declared  the  gift  to  be  invalid  on  account  of  its 
extravagance,  but  John  Teutonicus,  the  anno- 
tator  of  the  Dccrctiim  (of  Gratian),  has  proved  its 
immutable  validity  from  the  Clementines,  ^  which 
inserted  the  Donation  into  the  imperial  oath. 

The  German  law-books  gave  the  Donation  of  Con- 
stantine  a  remarkable  extension,  inasmuch  as  they 
maintained  that  Constantine  gave  to  Sylvester  the 
civil  or  king's  bann  to  the  amount  of  sixty  schill'ngs, 
"  in  order  to  compel  all  those  who  will  not  refonTi 
"  themselves  by  corporal  punishment,  to  be  compelled 
"to  do  so  by  means  of  fines."  ^  This  is  a  spcciuc 
German  invention,  utterly  unknown  to  the  Latin 
nations.  The  sense  is  as  follows :  in  consequence  of 
the  wide  and  indefinite  sphere  of  the  ecclesiastical  ^ 

1  [Tlio  ConxlitHtinnes  dement  n«  are  that  part  of  the  Corpus  Juris 
C'inoniri  whicli  contains  the  derrces  of  the  council  of  Viennc  (a.d. 
1311),  to;,'cthcr  with  decrees  of  Clement  V.;  published  in  1313.] 

2  !Siichs''rt'j)iff)el,  von  lloineycr,  i.,  238  (3,  G3).  JJiis  Rechlxhuch 
nach  JJUlinclionen,  edited  by  Orlloff,  p.  325  (G,  IG).  ISchwalenspiegel, 
in  Scnckcnberg,  Corp.  Jur  Germ.,  ii.,  10. 

3  [Tlicbe  ecclesiastical  courtiS  (^boud-gericLte,  synodus)  were  held 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  165 

courts,  it  became  a  custom  in  Germany  that  the 
ecclesiastical  judges  should  impose  fines,  levying 
them  themselves,  for  various  crimes,  some  of  which 
belonged  entirely  to  the  municipal  jurisdiction  ;  an 
abuse  which  Alexander  III.  forbade  as  early  as  the 
year  1 180,  but  to  no  purpose.  As  an  authority  for  this 
abnormal  custom  was  wanted,  and  none  could  be 
found,  the  Donation  of  Constantine — that  large  and 
inexhaustible  treasury  from  which  political  and 
municipal  privileges  could  be  drawn  just  as  they 
were  wanted — must  here  also  be  brought  into  use.  ^ 

In  the  ideas  of  the  people  and  laity  generally,  the 
Donation  of  Constantine  had  meanwhile  acquired 
another  and  more  comprehensive  significance.  In 
the  whole  of  the  later  Middle  Ages  we  see  two 
diametrically  opposite  currents  prevailing.  On  the 
one  side  was  the  effort  to  furnish  the  Churcli  with 

by  the  bishop,  or  arch<lcacon,  or  their  substitntc  (Senflricht^r)  to  try 
ecclesitastical  olTcnoes,  especially  profanation  of  the  Lord's  day,  and 
other  violations  of  the  decalogue.] 

I  The  cardinals  D'Ailly  and  Zaberclla,  on  behalf  of  the  hishopg 
and  their  officials,  lodged  complaints  respecting  these  fiscal  gains  of 
the  ecclesiastical  courts  before  tlie  council  of  Constance,  and  re- 
quested  that  provision  might  be  made  against  tlum  .Sec  Von  Der 
Hardt,  Concil.  Const.,  i  ,  p  8,  p.  421,  and  p  9,  p.  524).  But  tiic 
mischief  continued  in  Germany,  and  contrilmted  not  a  little  to  the 
general  bitterness  against  the  hierarchy  and  the  clergy,  as  one  sees 
from  the  Gravamina  Xationis  Germanicx,  c.  64,  of  the  year  15-2,  not 
to  inentiou  other  indications  of  the  same  fact. 


i66  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

considerable  donations,  to  create  for  her  a  broad 
foundation  of  extensive  landed  property,  and  to  raise 
the  number  and  condition  of  clergy  living  on 
ecclesiastical  endowments  ;  but  side  by  side  with  this 
was  the  view  which  had  been  making  way  ever  since 
the  twelfth  century,  that  the  great  possessions  and 
large  revenues  of  the  Church  were  a  grievous  evil,  the 
sources  of  nearly  all  existing  abuses,  and  the  causes 
of  a  moral  deterioration  of  the  clergy.  ^    This   view 

]  [Wc  find  this  expressed  in  very  strong  language  in  some  of  the 
political  and  satirical  songs  of  the  thirteenth  and  following  centuries. 
Such  songs  took  a  new  tone  in  England  just  about  that  age.  The 
civil  commotions  of  the  reign  of  John,  and  the  weak  government  of 
II(;nry  III.,  afforded  every  party  abundance  of  material  fur  satire, 
and  plenty  of  opportunity  for  giving  it  free  utterance.  The  clerk 
with  bis  Latin,  the  courtier  with  his  Anglo-Norman,  and  the  people 
with  their  vigorous  old  English,  all  had  their  word  to  .say.  It  may 
be  worth  while  to  give  a  few  examples  from  Mr.  Wright's  collectiou 
of  I'he  FolUical  Songs  of  England. 

"Roma  mundi  caput  est,  scd  nil  capit  mundum  ; 

Quod  pendet  a  capite  totum  est  immundum ; 

Transit  enim  vitium  primum  in  secundum, 

Et  de  fundo  redolet  quod  est  juxta  fundum. 

"  Roma  capit  singulos  et  res  singulorum  ; 

Romanorum  curia  non  est  nisi  forum. 

Ibi  sunt  venaliajura  senatorum, 

Et  solvit  contraria  cupia  nummorum." 
"  Solam  avaritiam  Roma  novit  parca, 

Parcitdunti  munera,  {)arco  non  est  parca: 

Nummns  est  pro  numine,  et  pro  Marco  marca, 

Et  est  minus  Celebris  ara  quam  sit  area,"  &c.,  &c. 

From  tho  Invectio  contra  avariliam  about  the  time  of  the  interdict. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  167 

gradually  assumed  a  form  of  serious  and  threatening 
import  to  the  clerical  body,  as  the  notion  was 
developed  out  of  it  that  originally  the  clergy  had 
been  poor,  had  lived  solely  upon  freewill  offerings, 
and  had  remained  poor  upon  principle,  until  Con- 
stantine  by  his  Donation  put  an  end  to  the  former 

"  Jacct  ordo  clericalis 
In  respectu  laicalis, 
Sponsa  Cbristi  fit  venalis, 
Geneiosa  generalis  ; 
Vcniiint  altnria, 
Vonit  eucharistia, 
Cum  sit  nngatoiia 
Gratia   vt-nalis." 
From  a  Song  against  (he  Bishops,  about  1250. 
"Lc8  contrc-estanz  abatcnt  li  fiz  de  folonie  ; 
Lors  pcrit  scinte  oglise,  quant  orgoil  la  mostrie. 
Ceo  sustonent  li  preiaz  ki  s'i  ne  peinent  raie, 
Pur  drciture  sustcnir  nolont  perdre  vie." 

From  a  Hong  of  the  Times,  about  1274. 
SfiC  also    Piers    the  Ploughmin's  Crede  (about  1394)   passim,  and 
the  pelican's   cbargcs  against  tbo  clergy  iu  tbe    Complaint   oj   the 
J'loughman.] 

[Waltber  von  dcr  Vogclweide  pings  thus  on  the  subject : — 
"  Solt  ich  den  pfaffen  raton  an  den  trinwcn  mtn  ; 
86  spraiche  ir  haut  don  armon  zuo  '  so  daz  ist  din,' 
ir  zunge  sunge  unde  lieze  manegem  man  daz  sin  ; 
Gcda^bUn  ouch  daz  si  durch  Got  c  w.'ircn  almnosnasre  : 
do  gap  in  crsto  gijltes  tiil  d'.T  kiinec  Constantin. 
lift  er  gewcst  daz  da  von  fibel  kiinftoc  wjcrc, 
BO  het  er  wol  undc-rkomen  di'S  riclu's  swrrre  ; 
wan  daz  si  dowaren  kischc  und  iibermiicte  l.ere." 

No.  Ill,  p.  113,  Sinirock's  edition,  Bonn,  1870. 
His  poems  abound  in  anti-papal  sentiments.] 


i6S  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

state  of  poverty,  especially  in  Rome,  and  pope 
Sylvester  by  his  acceptance  of  it  gave  an  example 
eagerly  followed  by  the  clerical  body  generally,  and 
incradicably  implanted  in  them  the  passion  for 
acquiring  wealth.  The  view  that  the  wealth  of  the 
Ciiurch  was  the  great  obstacle  in  the  way  of  all 
clerical  reform  gained  ground  more  and  more. 
Sectarianism,  which  from  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century  onwards  assumed  numerous  and  various 
shapes  in  Italy,  France,  and  Germany,  made  common 
cause  with  this  view,  or  fostered  it  and  spread  it 
assiduously.  It  ended  in  becoming  part  and  parcel 
of  public  opinion. 

It  was  precisely  this  which  won  for  the  fabulous 
Donation  of  Constantine  such  universal  acceptance, 
that  the  fiction  so  exactly  corresponded  with  the 
feelings  and  needs  of  the  people  at  that  time.  The 
M.Jdle  Ages,  with  their  natural  propensity  to  imagine 
definite  actors,  and  an  act  producing  eftects  once 
for  all,  in  the  case  of  circumstances  which  really 
had  been  gradually  and  slowly  developed,  could  not 
account  for  the  fact  that  the  formerly  poor  Church 
had  gradually  become  rich,  otherwise  than  by  repre- 
senting this  change  as  liaving  been  instantaneous. 
The  Church,  which  till  yesterday  had  been  utterly 
without  property,  became   suddenly   possessed  of  a 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  169 

superabundance  of  earthly  goods,  through  the  acts  of 
the  two  Heads,  the  imperial  giver,  and  the  accepting 
pope.  And  therewith,  said  numberless  persons,  the 
hitherto  closed  Pandora-box  had  been  opened  for  the 
Church ;  all  the  evils  from  which  she  was  suffering 
were  to  be  attributed  to  this  source  of  mischief.  ^ 
Even  men  who  stood  on  the  heights  in  their  own 
age,  saw  the  matter  thus,  and  their  grief  at  the  in- 
firmities of  the  Church,  the  degeneracy  of  the  clergy, 
and  the  ceaseless  conflict  between  the  spiritual  and 
temporal  power,  clothed  itself  in  lamentations  over 
Constantinc's  well-meant,  but  ill-advised  munificence. 
Thus  two  contemporaries,  whose  sentiments  agree  in 
many  points,  Dante  ^  and  Ottokar  of  Ilorneck.    The 

1  With  what  naivcie  even  ecclesiastics  and  historians  Tip  to  (ho 
close  of  the  Middle  Ages  jjlaccd  themselves  quite  at  the  stand-point 
of  iho  popular  view,  is  sliown  from  tlio  following  passage  of  tho 
monk  Bernhard  White  (about  a.d.  1510)  in  his  llistoria  Wesfphalix, 
Monast.,  1775,  p.  CI  :  "Silvestro  pontificantc  .  .  .  ccclesiarum 
"  Pra?!ati,  qui  hactenus  in  paupcrtatc  vixerunt,  imo  nihil  hahcntcset 
"  omnia  possidentes,  posscssiones  haherc  inccperunt." 

2  Inf.,  XIX.,  115-17: 

["  Ahi  Constantin,  di  quanto  mal  fn  matro, 
Non  la  tua  conversion,  ma  quella  dote, 
Che  da  te  preso  il  primo  ricco  patro  !" 
"Ah,  Conslanline!  of  liow  much  ill  was  mother, 
Not  thy  conversion,  hut  that  marriage  dower, 
AVhich  the  first  wealthy  Father  took  from  thee  I" 

Longfellow's  Translation. 

Dante  deplores  the  Bupposed  Donation  no  less  heartily  in  the  De 

15 


170  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

former  especially  bewails  avarice  and  simony,  as  the 

unhallowed  fruit  of  that  Donation  ;  but  the  latter  says 

Constantine  added  a  sword,  which  they  did  not  know 

Monarchic :  "  0  feliccm  populum  !  0  Ansoniam  te  gloriosam!  si  vol 
"  numquam  infirmator  imperii  tui  extitisset ;  vel  numquam  sua  pia 
"intentio  ipsum  fcfuliisset."     Lib.  u.,  sub  finem. 

Ariosto  places  the  Donation  in  the  moon,  among  the  things  which 
have  been  lost  or  abused  on  earth  : 

"  Di  varj  fiori  ad  un  gran  monte  passa, 
Ch'  ebbcr  gii  buono  odorc,  or  pnzzan  forte, 
Questo  era  il  dono  (se  pero  dir  lece) 
Che  Constantino  al  buon  Silvestro  fecc." 

OtI.  Fur.,  c.  xxxiv.,  st.  80. 
"  Then  passed  he  to  a  flowery  mountain  green, 
Which  once  srnclt  sweet,  now  stinks  as  odiously ; 
This  was  that  gift,  if  you  the  truth  will  have, 
That  Constantine  to  good  Sylvester  gave." 

Milton's  Translation.     Frose  Works,  i.,  p.  11,  ed.  1753. 
From  Gary's  note  on  Dante,  Inf,  xix.,  118. 

But  perhaps  the  strongest  passage  in  Dante  against  the  Donation 
is  Par.  XX.,  55,  where  Constantine  is  found  in  Paradise,  in  sj)iie  o/tha 
Donation. 

"  Lo  altio,  chc  segue,  con  le  Icggi  e  mcco 
Sotto  buona  intenzion,  che  fe  mal  frutto, 
Per  cedere  al  pastor  si  fece  Greco : 
Ora  conosce,  come  il  mal  dedutto 
Dal  Kuo  bene  operar  non  li  6  nocivo, 
Avvegnachesia  il  rnondo  indi  distrutto." 

"  The  next  who  follows  (Constantino),  with  the  laws  and  me, 
Under  the  good  intent  that  bore  bad  fruit 
Bocamc  a  Greek  by  ceding  to  the  pastor; 
Now  knoweth  he  how  all  the  ill  deduced 
From  his  good  action  is  not  harmful  to  him, 
Although  the  world  thereby  may  be  destroyed." 

Longfellow  8  Translation.] 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  171 

how  to  wield,  to  the  stole  of  the  priests,  and  thus 
broke  the  strength  of  the  empire.  ^ 

This  view,  that  the  Donation  had  brought  ruin 
into  the  Church,  assumed  in  that  legend-producing 
acre  the  form  of  an  actual  occurrence.  An  an'i^el  was 
said  to  have  cried  from  heaven,  "  Woe !  woe  !  This 
"  day  hath  poison  been  infused  into  the  Church." 
The  legend  is  to  be  found  as  early  as  the  commence- 
ment of  the  thirteenth  ^  century,  in  VValther  von  dcr 
Vogelweide.  "The  angel  hath  told  us  true,"  says 
this  poet,  but  he  is  thinking  chiefly  of  the  weakening 
of  the  empire,  which  appears  to  him  to  be  the  evil 
fruit  of  the  Donation  : 

"  alle  vurstcn  lebent  nu  mit  eren, 
wan  dcr  hbhstc  ist  geswachet, 
daz  hat  der  pfaflen  wal  gemachct."  * 

So,  also,  the  Strasburg  chronicler,  Konigshofen. 
"  Then  was  a  voice  heard  over  all  Rome,  which  said, 
"  '  This  day  hath  gall  and  venom  flowed  into  holy 

1  Cap.  448.  in  Pez.,  ii!.,  4  !G. 

2  [Siinroik  assigns  this  pot-m  to  ad.  1198.  The  one  in  which  (he 
poet  tJiiks  of  having  f.nng  for  forty  years,  "von  minnen  unci  als 
"  it-mtn  sol,"  is  a.s.siyned  to  the  year  1.28.  Thi:^  would  place  his 
birth  about  1163.  He  took  jmrt  in  the  sixth  crusade,  and  probably 
died  soon  after  his  return.] 

3  [That  is,  "all  the  princes  now  live  with  honours,  since  tho 
highest  (the  emperor)  is  weakened.  The  election  of  the  clergy  has 
brought  about  thiti."     No.  5,  p.  3(>,  iSimruck's  edition.] 


172  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

"  *  Christendom,'  and  know  ye  that  this  also  is 
"  source  and  ground  of  all  war  between  popes  ^  and 
"  emperors." 

Contemplation  of  the  mischief  which  the  hatred 
between  Lewis  the  Bavarian  and  the  French  popes 
had  created,  moved  the  Minorite  John  of  Winterthur 
also  to  complain,  that  "at  this  time  one  sees  plainly 
"enough  how  truly  the  angel  spoke,  in  saying  that 
"  through  that  well-meant,  but  in  its  consequences 
"  most  unhappy,  rich  dotation  and  fat  present,  which 
"  Constantine  conferred,  poison  had  flowed  into  the 
"  Church."  2 

Even  theologians  were  not  ashamed  to  appeal  to 
the  saying  of  the  angel.  John  of  Paris  concludes  from 
it  that  the  Donation  had  displeased^  God.  A  hun- 
dred years  after  him  Dietrich  Vrie,  an  Augustinian  at 
Osnabruck,  says  that  poison  certainly  at  that  time 
had  been  administered  to  the  Church,  but  yet  only 
through  the  dbuse  of  the  Donation  ;  for  wealth  in  itself 

1  In  the  Yionna  mannscript,  ITist.  Eccles.,  29,  fol.  6i  (  in 
tliirti'cnth  century),  the  reason  given  for  the  voice  of  the  angel  is, 
"  quia  (ecclofiia'  major  est  dignitnte,  minor  religione."  The  story 
about  the  angcl  is  foimd  also  in  the  Chron.  Mona.t.  Mellicensis,  in 
P.;z,  ycr.  Auistr  ,  i  ,  182,  in  the  chronicle  of  Theodore  Engelhusen,  in 
L;ibnitz,  .' cr.  Brunsvic. ,ii.,  1034. 

2  In  Eccard,  i.,  1889. 

3  la  bchaid,  tylloge,  p.  210. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  173 

was  by  no  means  a  calamity  for  the  Church.  ^  At 
last  this  saying  of  the  angel  passed  into  a  proverb, 
common  even  in  the  mouth  of  the  lower  orders.  2 

At  finst,  however,  this  angel,  who  proclaimed  the 
poisoning  of  the  Church,  seems  to  have  been  a  fallen 
one.  For  the  first  who  narrates  the  miracle,  Giraldus 
Cambrensis  (about  the  year  11  So),  (and,  as  bishop 
Pecock  of  Chichester  (1450)  assures  us,  the  other 
chroniclers  merely  copy  Giraldus,)  makes  the  "  old 
enemy  "  speak  the  words.  ^  At  any  rate,  this  "  evil 
one  "  shortly  afterwards  transformed  himself  into  an 
angel  of  light. 

The  sects  of  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries, 
especially  the  Catharists  and  Waldcnscs,  proceeded 
on  the  principle,  that  every  possession  of  the  Church 
was  in  itself  objectionable,  and  that  it  was  damnable 
for  the  Church  to  devote  anything  more  than  the  mere 
freewill  oilerin^s  of  the  moment,  towards  supplying 

1  Ilist.  Coneil.  Const.,  in  Von  der  ITnnU,  i.,  111. 

4  Ab  omnibus  rccitattir,  tempore  quo  (  onstnnJinus  Jf.  inroopit 
dotarc  ecclcsiam,  audita  est  vox  in  acre  :  "  Ilodic  cffusum  vrntniim 
«'  in  ecclesia."  Jo.  Major,  de  Pot.  Pajicc.  In  Gcrson's  Works,  ii., 
1159. 

1  "The  cold  enemy  made  tbilk  voice  in  the  cir."  Peeock's 
Fepresfor,  cd.  by  C'hurcbill  I  nlinpfon,  London,  186f>,  p  351. 
According  to  Pocock's  stat'TOi  nt,  the  passapc  is  to  be  found  in  tlio 
Coivwyraphia  liilernicx  of  Giraldus.  It  is  not  in  the  printul  jfoyo- 
ffraphia  Iliberniix  ;  but  it  is  possibly  in  tbc  btill  unpiinled  iJencnjUio 
Mundi  of  Giraldus. 


174  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

means  of  life  to  the  clergy.  The  ^  endowment, 
therefore,  of  the  Church  by  Constantine  was  considered 
by  them  as  a  decisive  turning-point,,  involving  the  ruin 
of  the  Church,  nay,  its  utter  destruction.  Until 
Sylvester,  they  said,  the  Church  existed  ;  in  him  it 
fell,  and  became  extinct  by  receiving  from  the  hand 
of  Constantine  riches  and  worldly  power,  until  it  was 
once  more  revived  by  the  "  Poor  men  of  Lyons.  "  ^ 
With  the  end  of  its  poverty  ended  the  very  existence 
of  the  Church  :  property  was  the  poison  of  which  it 
died.  Sylvester  is,  therefore,  that  mighty,  bold,  and 
crafty  king   prophesied   of  in   Daniel  ^  viii.   24,  who 

1  [Tl.is  was  the  doctrine  so  widely  spread  by  the  Abbot  Joachim 
of  Fioro,  Dolcino  of  Novara,  and  the  Fraticelli.  The  primitive 
Churcli  had  held  that  poverty  was  better  than  riches.  That  period 
had  come  to  an  end  with  Sylvester.  Since  his  time  all  poi)es  had 
been  prevaricators  and  deceivers,  except  Celestine  V.  Ho  alono 
had  understood  and  practised  the  blessed  state  of  poverty.  The 
Cathari  argued  that,  as  Constantino's  empire  was  one  of  wrong  and 
violence,  and  he  had  ceded  it  to  Sylvester,  the  popes  since  Sylvester 
were  successors  to  an  unrighteous  kingdom,  not  to  an  apostolic 
Church.  This  view  had  its  effect  also  on  the  various  prophecies 
which  were  circulated  in  the  fourteenth  century  under  the  name  of  ■ 
Joachim,  and  others.  Sec  a  most  interesting  essay  by  Dr.  D.jllinger 
in  Uaumer's  Jlisloruch  a  Tuichenbuch,  Leipzig,  1871,  on  Der  Weis- 
taguvgfglaxile  und  dan  ProfiheletUhum  in  d  r  chrisUichen  Zeil,  pp.  2G4: 
2U5,  282,  283.]     [This  essay  is  translated  in  the  present  volume.] 

2  Ilainer.  Sacchoni,  in  Martene  Thesaur.  v.,  1775.  y^on^^^ia,  Advers. 
C'llhar.  et  \'a!d.,  p.  412. 

3  [  '  And  in  the  latter  time  of  their  kingdom,  when  the  trans- 
*'  gressors  are  come  to  the  full,  a  king  of  fierce  countenance,  and 
"understanding  dark  sentences,  shall  stand  up.     And  his  power 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  175 

destroys  "  the  people  of  the  holy  ones  " — [das  Volk 
der  Heiligen  ; — so  the  Hebrew,  and  the  margin  of 
the  English  version].  He  is  also  Antichrist,  the  Man 
of  Sin,  and  Son  of  Perdition,  of  whom  St.  PauP  speaks 
[2  Thess.  ii.  3].  Valdez,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
founder  of  the  "  Poor  men  of  Lyons,"  is  the  Elias, 
who,  according  to  the  words  of  Christ  (Matt.  xvii.  1 1), 
shall  come  and  restore  all  things.  Later,  however, 
the  Waldenses  discovered  that  a  Church  which  for 
eight  hundred  years,  from  Sylvester  to  Valdez,  had 
entirely  vanished,  and  then  had  been  called  into 
existence  again  out  of  nothing,  was  a  nonentity. 
They  maintained,  therefore,  that  their  sect  or  church 
had  not  had  its  first  beginning  with  Valdez,  but  had 
already  been  in  existence  in  the  time  ^  of  Sylvester, 
and  that  since  that  pope  all  the  clergy,  and  those  who 

*'  shall  be  mighty,  but  not  by  liis  o\m  power  ;  nnd  he  shall  destroy 
•:  wonderfully,  and  sliall  prosper,  and  practise,  and  shall  destroy  tho 
"mighty  and  the  holy  people.  And  througli  his  policy  also  he  shall 
"cause  craft  to  prosper  in  his  hand  ;  and  he  sliall  magnify  himself 
"  in  his  heart,  and  by  peace  shall  destroy  many  :  he  shall  also  stand 
"np  against  the  Prince  of  princes,  but  he  shall  be  broken  without 
"hand."  (Daniel  viii.  23-2j.)  Only  by  considering  Sylvester  as 
having  become,  through  the  Donation,  potintially  a  Gregory  VII., 
an  Innocent  III.,  a  Boniface  VI II.,  can  we  understand  how  this 
prophecy  could  ever  have  been  quoted  as  referring  to  him.J 

1  Moneta,  iv.,  263. 

2  Petrus  de  Pilichdorf;   Contra  Waldenses,  in  Bibl.  Patr.  Lugd, 
XXV.,  278. 


176  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

followed  them,  were  damned.  ^  The  name  Leoncnses 
(i.e.  of  Lyons)  then  gave  occasion  to  the  invention  of 
a  Leo  as  the  supposed  founder  of  the  sect,  A  pious 
man  of  this  name  in  the  time  of  Constantine,  "disciple 
"and  fellow  of  pope  Sylvester,"  is  said  to  have 
separated  from  the  now  wealthy  pope,  in  order  to 
show  his  abhorrence  of  the  latter's  avarice,  and  serve 
the  Lord  in  voluntary  ^  poverty. 

This  notion,  that  utter  poverty  of  the  clergy,  and 
rejection  of  all  property,  were  among  the  conditions 
of  the  Church's  existence,  and  that,  consequently, 
Constantine  and  Sylvester  were  the  authors  of  the 
Church's  ruin,  was  at  that  time  so  prevalent,  and  so 
much  in  harmony  with  the  characteristics  of  the  age, 
that  it  was  always  reappearing.  The  Dulcinists  ^  or 
Apostolic  Brethren  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  who  aspired  to  realise  the  primitive  Church 
in  its  purity,  as  they  conceived  it,  said  that  it  was 
Sylvester  who  had  reopened  the  doors  of  human 
society    and    of  the    Church    to   Satan.  "*      Dolcino 

1  Be  Ilotresi  Paup.  de  Lugd ,  in  Martcne,  Thos.  v.,  1779. 

2  So  Conrad  Justingcr  in  iScrn,  about  a.u.  1420,  in  liis  chronicle 
of  Bern. 

3  [The  followers  of  Dolcino  of  Novara.  Clemont  V.  condcmnrd 
liini  and  others  to  dcatli.  His  flesh  was  torn  away  from  his  body 
vitli  liot  ])ii)chers,  and  liis  limbs  then  wrenched  cilT,  a  d.  1304.] 

4  "  Qimndf)  panijertas  fiiit  mutata  ah  eccle.sia  [kt  S.  Kilvtstnira 
"tunc  saiK  titas  vitic  fiiit  sublracta  ccclesiaj  et  diabolus  intnivit  in 
"hnnc  nuindiim  "  fio  the  Dulcinist  Peter  of  Lucca,  in  Limborcb 
Ilitt.  inquis.,  I).  3C0. 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  177 

himself,  in  his  first  letter  to  Christendom,  declared 
Sylvester  to  be  the  angel  of  Pergamus,  who  "  dwells 
"where  Satan's  seat  is."     (Rev.  ii.  13.) 

The  English  precursor  of  Protestantism,  Wyclif, 
shared  this  view.  Constantine,  he  says,  foolishly 
injured  himself  and  the  clergy,  in  burdening  the 
Church  so  heavily  with  temporal  goods.  ^  In  the 
Trialognsht  represents  Antichrist  as  produced  by  the 
Donation  of  Constantine,  and  thence  deduces  the 
downfall  of  the  Roman  empire.  ^ 

The  days  of  the  Donation  of  Constantine  were, 
however,  numbered.  Already,  in  the  year  1443, 
yEncas  Sylvius  Piccolomini,  afterwards  pope  Pius  II., 
then  secretary  to  Frederick  III.,  had  recommended 
that  emperor  to  summon  a  fresh  council,  at  which, 
among  other  things,  the  question  of  the  Donation  of 
Constantine,  "which  caused  perplexity  to  many  souls," 
should  on  Frederick's  proposal  be  finally  decided. 
He  himself  was  well  known  to  be  convinced  of  its 
unauthenticity,  and  he  notices  that  neither  in  the 
ancient  historians  nor  in  Datnasus,  that  is,  in  the 
Pontifical  book,  was  anything  about  it  to  be  found. 
Its  unauthenticity,  therefore,  was  to  be  proclaimed  by 

1  Thomas  Waldcnsis,  Doclrin.  Fidei,  cd.  Blanciotti,  ii..  708,  quotes 
his  words  from  his  book  Ve  Papa. 

2  Traeia  and  Treatises,  ed.  Vaughan,  1S45,  p.  174. 


178  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

the  council,  and  ^neas  joined  with  this  the  arrihe 
pens^e,  that  Frederick  should  again  take  possession  of 
at  least  a  part  of  the  territory  included  in  the  Dona- 
tion, as  belonging  to  the  empire,  and  thus  gain  a  firm 
basis  in  the  peninsular  for  the  imperial  power,  which 
otherwise  would  vanish  into  air.^ 

Three  men  appeared  almost  simultaneously  in  the 
middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  to  prove  on  historical 
grounds,  that  the  fact  of  the  Donation  no  less  than 
the  document  was  an  invention ; — Reginald  Pecock, 
bishop  of  Chichester,  cardinal  Cusa,  and  Lorenzo 
Valla.  In  contrast  to  the  uncertain  vacillation  ^  of 
Cusa,  Pecock's  exactness  of  historical  investigation, 
an  exactness  proportionate  to  his  knowledge  of 
authorities,  is  very  remarkable.  ^  In  Paris,  where 
scholasticism  still  held  the  sceptre,  criticism  had  not 

1  Pentahgus,  in  Pez.  Thes.  Anecd.  iv.,  p  3,  679. 

2  The  passage  out  of  his  Concordaniia  Calholica  is  printed  in 
Brown,  Fasciculus,  i.,  157. 

3  Fepressor,  p.  3G1-67.  [Pecock  gives  eight  reasons  for  main- 
taining that  the  Donation  is  a  fi(  tion,  most  of  them  tolerably 
conclusive  ;  e.  g.  the  silence  of  Damasiis,  who  mentions  other  small 
gifts  of  Constantino;  the  silenc;  of  credible  historians;  the  fact 
that  Const-inline  bequeathed  the  very  territory  in  question  to  his 
sons,  and  that  Boniface  IV.  asked  the  emperor  Phocas  to  give  him 
the  I'antheon  as  a  church,  a.  v  608,  &c.,  &c.  By  "Damasus" 
Pecock  no  doubt  means  the  Liber  /'onlificalis  or  AnaUasius  (falsely 
BO  called),  which  was  usually  quoted  as  a  work  of  pope  Damasus  ia 
the  Middle  Ages  J 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  179 

advanced  so  far  as  this  fifty  years  later,  as  Almain 
shows.  Valla  certainly  went  much  farther  than 
Pecock  and  Cusa ;  he  undertook  to  prove  that  the 
pope  had  no  right  to  the  possession  of  Rome,  and  the 
States  of  the  Church  in  particular,  that  he  was  "  tantum 
"  Vicarius  Christi  et  non  etiam  Caesaris,"  His  treatise 
was  rather  an  artistic,  rhetorical  production,  an  elo- 
quent declamation,  than  a  calm  historical  investiga- 
tion. 1  He  himself  considered  it  as  the  c/icf  d'cuiivre 
of  his  eloquence.  And  yet  after  his  treatise  had  been 
circulated  everywhere,  and  had  caused  the  greatest 
excitement.  Valla  was  invited  to  Rome  by  Nicolas 
v.,  taken  into  the  service  of  the  pope,  and  received 
both  from  Nicholas  V.  and  from  Calixtus  HI.,  various 
marks  of  favour,  without  any  retractation  whatever 
being  required  of  him. 

The  jurists  meanwhile  did  not  allow  themselves  to 
be  put  out  of  countenance,  and  held  fast  to  the  fiction 
for  about  a  hundred  years  longer.^  Antonius,  arch- 
bishop of  Florence,  calls  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
passage  in  Gratian's  decretals  docs  not  exist  in  the 

1  Poggiali,  Memorie  di  Lorenzo  Valla,  Pinccnzn,  1700,  p.  119.  [A 
full  account  of  tliis  treatise  of  Valla  is  given  in  the  Prtibylerian 
Qh  rterhj  Jietiew,  Jan.  18G1,  pp.  381-111,  Ly  Har.  E.  11.  Gillett, 
D.D] 

2  "  A  pud  Canonistns  nulla  ainl)iguita.s  est,  quin  perpetua  firmitato 
"  subnixa  sit,"  says  Peter  of  Andlo,  De  imperio  Romano,  p.  42,  in  tho 
Tractatus  varii  de  R.  G.  Imp.  Reyimine,  Norimb.,  1657. 


i8o  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

more  ancient  manuscripts  of  the  collection,  but  at  the 
same  time,  remarks  that  the  legists  (professors  of  civil 
law)  disputed  the  legal  validity  of  the  Donation,  while 
the  canonists  and  theologians  upheld  it.  He  himself 
adopts  the  idea  ^  of  a  universal  dominion  of  the  pope, 
resting  on  a  divine  dispensation,  and  accordingly  sees 
in  the  Donation  nothing  more  than  a  restitution. 
Meanwhile,  defenders  of  its  legal  authenticity  were 
not  wanting  even  among  the  professors  of  civil  law.  ^ 
Above  all  others  Bartolo  must  be  mentioned  here 
(about  1350),  to  whom  formerly,  as  Tiraboschi  says, 
almost  divine  honour  was  paid.  But  as  he  calls  atten- 
tion to  the  territory  in  which  he  and  his  hearers 
happen  to  be,  he  lets  one  divine  his  true  meaning.  ^ 
On  the  other  hand,  Nicolas  Tudeschi,  who  was  con- 
sidered by  his  contemporaries  as  the  greatest  of  all 
canonists,  declares  that  he  who  denies  the  Donation 
lies  under  the  suspicion*  of  heresy.     Cardinal  P.  P. 

1  The  passage  out  of  his  Pars  Ilislorialis  is  found  in  Brown, 
Fascic,  i.,  159. 

2  The  jurists  had  discovered  a  passage  in  proof  of  the  Donation 
even  in  tlic  Corpus  juris  civilis.  That  is  to  say,  Cod.  5,  27,  in  a  law 
of  the  emperor  Zeno,  tliey  read,  "  Divi  Constantini,  qui .  .  .  llonia- 
"  iium  minuit  imperium,"  instead  of  "  munivt." 

3  "  Videte,  quia  nos  sumus  in  terris  Ecclesix,  idcirco  dico  quod  ilia 
"  donatio  valeat."    In  protcm.,  fl'.  n.  14. 

4  Concil.  84,  n.  2,  in  cap.  per  vcnerabilem,  and  elsewhere.  Com- 
pare Francisci  liursati  Consilia,  Venet.,  1572,  i ,  359. 

10 


THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE.  i8i 

Parisius,  and  the  Spanish  bishop,  Arnold  Albertinus, 
declare  the  same.  Whosoever  pronounces  the  Dona- 
tion to  be  null  and  void,  says  the  latter,  conies  very- 
near  to  heresy  ;  but  whosoever  maintains  that  it  never 
took  place  at  all  is  in  a  still  worse  case.^  Antonius  ^ 
Rosellus,  and  Ludwig  Gomez  ^  are  of  the  same  opinion; 
and  cardinal  Hieronymus  Albano  declares  thus  much 
at  least,  that  there  exist  shameless  persons  who  refuse 
to  submit  to  the  "  unanimis  consensus  tot  ac  tantorum 
"  Patrum,"  respecting  the  Donation  ;  or,  according  to 
the  expression  of  Petrus  Igneus,  to  the  "  tota  acade- 
"  mia  Canonistarum  et  Legistarum,"  with  the  whole 
host  of  theologians  to  boot.*  But  after  cardinal 
Baronius  had  once  for  all  confessed  the  unauthenticity 
of  the  Donation,  all  these  voices,  which  had  shortly 
before  been  so  numerous  and  so  loud,  became  dumb. 
Only  one  remark  more  need  be  added  in  conclusion. 
In  consequence  of  its  naturalization  among  the 
Greeks,  the  Donation  in  its  full  extent  found  admit- 
tance even  into  Russia,  for  it  exists  in  the  Konnczaia 
Kniga,  the  Corpus  juris  canonici  of  the  Graeco-Sla- 
vonic  Church,  which  was  translated  from  the  Greek 

1  Be  Agvo'.endls  A.^sert.  Caih.  et  Uxr.,  qmrxt.,  17,  n.  14. 

2  Tr  !ct.  de  Potest.  Papm,  LngJ.  s.  a.,  p.  320. 

3  In  Bursatus,  1.  c.  360". 

4  Bui-satus,  1.  c,  quoted  all  these,  and  many  others. 


i82  THE  DONATION  OF  CONSTANTINE. 

by  a  Servian  or  Bulgarian,  in  the  thirteenth  or  four- 
teenth century.  * 

[One  2  further  argument  may  be  noticed,  not  as 
being  needed,  but  as  being  in  itself  almost  conclusive. 
Among  the  innumerable  monuments  of  Roman  art, 
from  the  fourth  century  onwards,  some  of  which  have 
direct  reference  to  Constantine,  no  reference  whatever 
is  made  to  the  Donation.  Would  it  not  have  been  a 
favourite  subject,  had  it  ever  been  a  fact  ?  There 
appears  to  be  only  one  representation  in  mediaeval  art 
of  the  Donation  of  Constantine.  It  is  a  mosaic  from 
the  "  zophoros, "  or  frieze  of  the  Lateran  basilica. 
Some  of  the  details  of  the  costumes  show  it  to  be  not 
earlier  than  the  twelfth  century.  On  one  side,  "  Rex 
"  baptizatur  et  leprae  sorde  lavatur ; "  on  the  other, 
"  Rex  in  scriptura  Silvestro  dat  sua  jura."] 

1  Wiener  Jahrbucher  der  Literatur,  Bd.  xxiii.,  265. 

2  The  TesHmony  of  the  Catacombs  and  other  Monuments  of  ChriS' 
iian  Art,  etc.,  by  Wharton  B.  Marriott,  London,  1870,  p.  99. 


VI.   LIBERIUS   AND   FELIX. 

It  will  be  necessary  first  to  give  the  true  history  of 
these  two  men,  the  sources  of  which  happily  flow  with 
all  the  clearness  that  could  be  wished.  In  this  way 
the  origin  and  tendency  of  the  fable  will  become  more 
plainly  apparent. 

The  emperor  Constantius,  under  the  influence  of 
his  eunuchs  and  certain  Arian  bishops,  wished  to  force 
Arianism  on  the  Church  and  bishops  of  the  West, 
in  that  weakened  and  half  ashamed  form  which  the 
Euscbians  had  given  to  it.  He,  as  well  as  his 
satellites,  made  use  of  all  means  of  seduction,  intimi- 
dation, and  brutal  violence,  in  order  to  accomplish 
this  object.  The  Roman  bishop,  Liberius,  first  at 
Rome,  and  then  at  Milan,  whither  he  had  been 
summoned  to  the  imperial  court,  steadfastly  resisted 
the  efforts  of  Constantius  and  his  eunuch,  Eusebius  ; 
he  was  accordingly  banished  to  Bcrrca,  in  Thrace,  in 
the  year  354.  In  his  place  Constantius  caused  the 
Roman  deacon,  Felix,  to  be  consecrated  by  three 
Arian  bishops  (one  of  whom  was  the  Anomacan 
Acacius  of  Ca^sarea),  in  the  presence  of  three  eunuchs. 
FeUx  had  not  formally  rejected  the  Nicene  Creed,  but 

183 


i84  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

lie  held  ecclesiastical  communion  with  Arians,  which 
was  all  that  the  leaders  of  that  party  needed  then  ;  for 
the  remainder,  viz.,  the  predominance  of  their  doctrine, 
would  gradually  follow  of  itself.  In  Rome,  where 
Liberius  was  personally  much  beloved,  the  people  re- 
refused  to  enter  the  churches  in  which  Felix  showed 
himself.  The  whole  clergy  publicly  promised,  with 
an  oath,  before  the  congregation,  that  as  long  as 
Liberius  lived  they  would  recognise  no  other.  It  ended 
at  last  in  an  insurrection,  in  which  some  persons  were 
killed.  1  When  Constantlus  came  to  Rome  two  years 
later,  he  found  the  Roman  populace  still  true  to 
Liberius.  The  Roman  ladies  besought  him  earnestly 
to  give  them  back  their  bishop,  and  he  granted  their 
request  to  this  extent,  that  he  decreed  that  Liberius 
and  Felix  (to  the  latter  of  whom  the  greatest  number  of 
the  clergy  had  meanwhile  joined  themselves)  should 
for  the  future  rule  the  Roman  Church  in  common. 
But  the  people  assembled  in  the  circus  cried  out,  "  One 
God,  one  Christ,  one  bishop."  Liberius  was,  however, 
not  recalled  ;  until  in  the  following  year,  357,  broken 
by  the  sufferings  and  privations  of  his  exile,  pressed 
with  threats,  and  deprived  even  of  the  man  who 
hitherto  had  been  left  to  him  as  servant  and  companion, 

1  Athanas.  Hist,  ad  mnnachon,  p.  389.  Faustini  and  Mnrcollini 
LihelL  pra;f.  Socrat.,  2,  37  ;  liufin.,  1,  22  ;  Ilioron.  Vir.  lUuslr.,  c. 
109  i  Chron.  ad.  a.  354. 


.     LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX.  185 

the  deacon  Urbicus,  he  determined  to  sign  a  creed 
wliich  was  laid  before  him,  to  refuse  to  hold  commu- 
nion with  Athanasius,  and  in  consequence  with  all 
decided  Nicaeans,  and  thus  to  enter  the  Arian  court 
party.  He  signed  the  first  formula  of  Sirmio,  which 
was  inoffensive  in  other  respects,  and  left  nothing  to 
be  desired  but  the  Ilomoiision.  lie  went  further  ; 
he  declared  himself  unable  to  hold  communion  with 
Athanasius,  and  accordingly  entered  into  communion 
with  the  most  decided  Arians,  such  as  Ursacius, 
Valcns,  and  Germinius.  lie  courted  the  favour  of  the 
influential  proteges  of  the  emperor,  the  Arian  bishops, 
Epictctus  and  Auxcntius.  Later  on  (in  the  year 
358),  he  was  sunmioncd  from  Beia^a  to  the  imperial 
court  at  Sirmio,  and,  at  Constantius'  bidding,  signed 
a  fresh  and  slill  worse  formula,  which  the  Arian  and 
Scmiarian  bishops,  just  then  assembled  at  a  synod  in 
Sirmio,  had  drawn  up.  In  this  formula,  with  a  view 
to  obtaining  an  express  rejection  of  the  Ilomoiision, 
the  decisions  of  the  synod  at  Antioch  ^  against  Paul 

1  Not  merely  of  the  synod  held  nt  Antiorh  in  3n,  as  Ilcfilo 
B(ali;s  {Concilien-Geichichte,  i.,  GG2)  ;  for  tliis  did  not  occupy  itself 
titli;r  with  the  case  of  I'anl  of  Sainosatn,  or  with  that  of  Puolinns  ; 
hut  also  of  tho  synod  of  269,  which  rjjctjd  the  Ilomoiision  in  the 
f:ils.>  s'-n':.'  f;iv 'n  to  it  hy  r.iiil  of  f^auinsala.  Tli ;  ohjjct  now  in 
viow  WHS  no  luiifj  r  a  ni>rj  abstaining  from  tlio  us-j  of  thj  hatod 
word,  liut  a  formal  cond.-mnation  of  it ;  bocause,  as  was  represent 'd, 
under  the  pretext  of  the  ilomoiiiiiou,  certain  perijoas  (Athanasius 


1 86  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

of  Samosata,  and  the  later  ones  against  Photinus  and 
Marcellus  of  Ancyra,  together  with  one  of  the  formu- 
laries of  the  synod  at  Antioch,  in  A.D.  341,  were 
incorporated.  Liberius  was  thus  reduced  to  accepting 
precisely  the  position  of  the  Semiarians,  now  so 
influential  with  Constantius.  He  gave  his  adhesion 
to  their  expression,  **  substantial  likeness,"  sacrificed 
the  Nicene  doctrine,  and  apprised  the  eastern  Arians 
of  his  entry  into  their  communion,  and  of  his  separation 
from  Athanasius.  It  was  chiefly  on  account  of  this 
weakness  exhibited  at  Sirmio,  under  the  double 
influence  of  the  emperor  and  the  bishops,  and  not  on 
account  of  what  had  taken  place  before  at  Bcraea, 
that  Liberius  drew  upon  himself  the  reproach  of  his 
contemporaries,  of  being  heretical,  and  an  ally  of 
heretics.  And,  indeed,  no  other  judgment  was  then 
possible.  He  had  granted  communion  to  the  very 
worst  Arians,  such  as  Epictetus  of  Centuncellai  and 
Auxcntius  of  Milan.^      It  was  Fortunatianus,  bishop 

and  all  who  held  firmly  to  the  Niccno  doctrine)  wished  to  Bet  up  a 
Beet  of  their  own.  Sozomen,  4,  15.  Philostorgius  (4,  3),  moreover, 
does  not  say,  as  llefele  represents,  that  Liberius  signed  the  second 
Sirmian  formula.  Of  the  one  signed  at  Bcraea  he  says  nothing 
whatever  ;  but  he  docs  mention  the  one  accepted  by  Liberius  after- 
wards at  Sirmio,  that  is  the  third ;  and  of  this  he  says  quite  correctly, 
and  in  agreement  with  Sozomen,  tluit  Liberius  thereby  condemned 
the  Homoiision  and  Athanasius. 

1  Hilar,  de  *i/n.,  0pp.,  ii.,  464  ;   Frag.,  6,  ii.,  680  ;   Sozom.,   4,   15. 
The  lettors  of  Liberius  in  Coustaut,  Epialola  Ponliff.,  442  sq^. 


LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX.  187 

of  Aquileia,   who,  according  to  Jerome,   persuaded 
Liberius  to  such  apostasy. 

This  was  the  price  at  which  Liberius  purchased  his 
return  to  Rome,  where  the  people  joyfully  welcomed 
the  bishop,  whom  they  personally  loved  in  spite  of 
his  fall.  The  whole  community  was,  and  remained, 
Catholic.  The  people  of  the  West  had  as  yet  occupied 
itself  but  little  with  the  controversies  about  the  con- 
substantiality  of  the  Son  with  the  Father  ;  they 
scarcely  understood  the  question  at  issue  or  its  import. 
Liberius  was  therefore  able  quietly  to  resume  his 
office  without  retracting.  It  had  been  determined  at 
Sirmio,  that  Liberius  and  Felix  should  preside  over 
the.  Church  of  Rome  together  ;  for  Felix,  in  conse- 
quence of  his  holding  communion  with  the  Arian 
bishops,  was  still  high  in  favour  at  court.  At  Rome, 
however,  disturbances  with  wide  reaching  conse- 
quences took  place.  The  clergy  were  divided,  for  the 
majority  had  broken  the  oath  of  fidelity  which  they 
had  taken  to  Liberius  before  his  banishment,  and  had 
recognised  Felix.  But  the  latter  was  obliged  to 
withdraw  from  the  city,  because  the  people  would  not 
tolerate  him  ;  and  long  afterwards  when  he  attempted 
to  get  possession  of  a  church  on  the  other  side  of  the 
Tiber,  he  was  again  driven  out.  lie  lived  eight  years 
from  that  time  without  being  able  to  set  foot  in  Rome ; 


i88  LTBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

but  after  his  death  (November  22nd,  365)  Liberlus 
pardoned  the  clergy  of  his  party,  and  allowed  them 
to  resume  their  position.^ 

Nothing  is  told  us  of  Liberlus  own  position.  He 
appears  not  to  have  retracted  what  he  did  at  Bersea 
and  Sirmio,  and  not  to  have  ceased  to  hold  com- 
munion with  the  Arians  ;  otherwise  Constantius  would 
not  have  allowed  him  to  remain  long  in  Rome.  The 
synod  of  Rimini  however,  towards  the  end  of  the 
year  359,  and  in  the  year  360,  gave  him  an  oppor- 
tunity of  proving  his  orthodoxy.  He  rejected  the 
synod,  and  ordered  that  those  who  had  taken  part  in 
it  should  be  admitted  to  communion  only  on  con- 
dition of  retracting  ;  and  it  was  he  who,  in  the  year 
366,  demanded  of  the  Semiarians  an  adhesion  to  the 
Ilomoiision,  which  he  had  formerly  rejected  himself, 
as  a  sine  qitd  non  of  their  being  recognised  by  the 
Church.  lie  might  have  been  led  astray  at  Sirmio, 
in  that  the  misuse  which  Paul  of  Samosata,  and  Mar- 
cellus  of  Ancyra,  and  Photinus  had  made  of  the 
Ilomoiision  was  represented  to  him  as  a  just  groun-^ 
for  refraining  from  using  so  double-edged  a  weapon 
as  this  word  had  proved,  and  for  forbidding  the 
employment  of  it ;   moreover,  they  had  held  up  to 

1  Marcellini  et  Fuiistln.  ad  lihell.  pvc.  prrcf.  Both  these  Iloman 
priests  were  eyc-witncsses,  and  Jerome  confirms  their  statement. 


LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX.  189 

him  the  authority  of  the  synod  of  269.  When  he 
assented  to  the  substantial  likeness  of  the  Son  to  the 
Father,  he  might  (like  other  otherwise  good  cathoHcs 
of  that  time)  have  been  convinced,  that  in  the  God- 
head substantial  equality  and  substantial  likeness  are 
necessarily  equivalent.  Thus  much  may,  perhaps,  be 
said  in  extenuation  of  his  error  ;  but  it  certainly  gives 
no  excuse  for  his  rejection  of  Athanasius,  or  for  his 
entering  into  communion  with  the  leaders  of  the 
Arian  party.  He  must  however  have  made  good  this 
grievous  error  even  before  the  synod  of  Rimini  was 
held  (359).  Without  doubt  events  since  358  had 
taught  him  that  that  dogmatic  word  was  indeed  quite 
indispensable  for  the  Church  ;  that  it,  as  he  says  in 
his  epistle  to  the  bishops  of  the  East,  in  the  year  366, 
was  "  the  sure  and  impregnable  bulwark,  against 
"  which  all  attacks  and  stratagems  of  Arianism  shat- 
"  tered."  ^ 

Liberius,  therefore,  at  no  time  in  his  life  was 
actually  heretical ;  but  his  eagerness  to  sec  himself 
freed  from  the  sufferings  of  a  lonely  exile  and  restored 
to  the  bosom  of  his  people,  who  loved  and  honoured 
him,  blinded  him.  He  sacrificed  the  Church  to  the 
Arians,  he  perplexed  the  consciences  of  his  people  in 
regard  to  Church  matters,  and  one  knows,  of  course, 

1  In  Coustant,  E^^.  Rom.  PoiUifff  p.  460. 


IQO  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

that  Hilary  anathematized  him.  But  he  remained 
throughout  the  rightful  bishop  of  Rome  ;  and  his  oppo- 
nent, Felix,  was  and  remained  an  illegitimate  intruder, 
in  respect  to  the  Arian  trouble  still  more  culpable  than 
Liberius.  For  Felix  received  violent  handling  from  no 
one,  and  obtained  and  kept  his  position  only  by  getting 
himself  ordained  by  Arians,  and  by  ensuring  them 
communion ;  especially  the  court  bishops,  and  those 
who  hung  about  the  emperor.  Whereas  Liberius  did 
not  succumb  to  the  ill  usage  to  which  he  was  subjected 
until  after  several  years  of  steadfast  endurance. 

At  the  death  of  Liberius,  in  the  year  366,  the  split 
which  the  intrusion  of  Felix  and  the  secession  of 
many  of  the  clergy  to  him  had  called  into  existence, 
broke  out  afresh,  this  time  with  bloodshed,  A  nu- 
merous faction  of  the  people,  urged  on  by  some  of  the 
clergy,  wished  to  decree  that  none  of  those  who,  in 
violation  of  their  oath,  had  recognised  Felix  ten  years 
before,  should  succeed  to  the  office  of  bishop.  On 
this  ground,  Ursinus  was  set  up  in  opposition  to 
Damasus,  who  had  been  elected  by  a  majority  of  the 
clergy.  A  regular  civil  war  was  the  consequence. 
They  fought  in  the  streets  and  in  the  churches  with 
such  animosity,  that  on  one  occasion,^  one  hundred 
and  thirty-seven  dead  bodies,  mostly  from  the  faction 

1  Ammian.  Marcell.,  1,  27,  3,  12. 


LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX.  191 

of  Urslnus,  were  found  in  the  Sicinian  basilica. 
Damasus  himself  could  not  restrain  his  own  party  ; 
and  only  by  the  banishment  of  Ursinus  and  seven 
others  of  this  faction,  and  by  the  strong  measures  of 
the  prefect  Juvencus,  was  some  sort  of  order  at  length 
restored  in  the  city.  The  supporters  of  Ursinus, 
however,  continued  their  schism  and  their  meetings 
in  the  cemeteries  of  the  martyrs,  which  led  to  fresh 
bloodshed  and  fresh  banishment  of  clergy  belonging 
to  this  faction.  Thus  passed  several  years  in  per- 
petual disquietude  ;  and  thus  from  that  violent  act  on 
the  part  of  Constantius  there  grew  so  long  afterwards 
the  bitter  fruit  of  a  disturbance  in  the  Church,  which 
was  not  completely  healed  until  a  whole  generation 
had  died  out. 

It  is  very  remarkable  that  the  later  myth  or  inten- 
tional fiction,  which  dates  from  the  sixth  or  seventh 
century,  has  metamorphosed  this  history  entirely  to 
the  disadvantage  of  Liberius,  and  in  favour  of  Felix, 
who  was  dubbed  an  ecclesiastical  hero  and  martyr. 
And  it  came  to  this ;  that  this  perjured  antipope, 
consecrated  by  fanatical  Arians,  and  intruded  on  the 
Romans  only  by  the  temporal  power,  was  honoured 
as  a  saint,  and  reckoned  in  the  list  of  the  popes  as 
pope  Fehx  II. ;  while  Liberius,  even  in  Rome  itcelf. 


192  LTBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

was  represented  as  a  blood-stained  tyrant,  a  heretic, 
and  persecutor  of  the  faithful. 

One  cannot  fail  to  see  that  all  this  was  invented 
Vk'ith  a  view  to  placing  the  cause  of  that  numerous 
portion  of  the  Roman  clergy  who  broke  their  oath 
and  adhered  to  Felix,  in  a  favourable  light,  and  to 
represent  them  as  the  rightful  party,  who  had 
withstood  heresy  and  the  heretical  pope,  and  had 
been  persecuted  on  that  account.  Nevertheless, 
these  fictions  must  be  assigned  to  a  late  period,  the 
isixth  or  seventh  century,  as  it  would  appear,  v.-hcn 
only  hazy  recollections  of  the  events  of  the  fourth 
century  still  survived  in  Rome,  and  when  the  story  of 
the  Roman  baptism  of  Constantine,  with  its  train  of 
myths,  had  already  disturbed  all  historic  consciousness 
there,  and  had  thrown  into  confusion  the  historical 
continuity  and  order  of  events.  There  are  three 
documents  in  wliich  the  fictitious  history  was  in- 
corporated, and  from  which  all  later  ones  have  been 
made  :  the  biographies  of  Libcrius  and  of  Felix  in  the 
Liber  Pontljicalis,  the  Acts  of  Felix,  first  edited  by 
Mombritius,  and  the  Acts  of  Euscbius.  ^ 

These   Acts   have  manifestly  been  invented   with 

1  Tlicy  nrcto  bo  found  in  the  Baliize-Mansl  Collection,  i.,  33,  and 
tlirou^riiouL  the  whole  of  the  Middle  Ajjed  were  consUiutly  used  and 
copied. 


LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX,  193 

a  view  to  branding  the  memory  of  Libcrlus,  and 
representing  him  in  the  most  glaring  way  as  an 
heretical  apostate  and  persecutor  of  the  CathoHc 
confessors,  so  that  the  party  of  Felix  might  appear 
as  the  oppressed  orthodox.  Hence  the  narrator 
makes  pope  Damasus  condemn  Liberius  in  a  synod 
of  twenty-eight  bishops  and  twenty-five  priests, 
immediately  after  Liberius*  death.  At  the  same 
time,  also,  this  opportunity  was  seized,  in  order  to 
give  a  fresh  security  against  the  contradicting 
testimony  of  antiquity  to  the  story  of  the  Roman 
baptism  of  Constantine, — the  pet  story  of  those  by 
whom  and  for  whom  the  invention  was  made.  Hence 
the  biography  of  Felix  begins  with  a  statement, 
made  with  affected  precision,  to  the  effect  that  he 
had  declared  the  emperor  Constantius,  son  of  Con- 
stantine, a  heretic,  who  had  got  himself  baptized  a 
second  time  by  Euscbius,  bishop  of  Nicomedia,  ^  in 
the  villa  Aquila  (Achyro),  near  to  Nicomedia. 

Here,  then,  what  the  father  did  is  transferred  to  the 
son,  and  the  intention  in  Constantine's  case  to  put 
Rome  in  the  place  of  Nicomedia,  and  Sylvester 
in  the  place  of  Euscbius,  is  unmistakeable. 

The  following  narrative  was  substituted  in  place  of 


1  In  Vignoli,  i.,  119. 
17 


194  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

the  true  one  in  the  two  first-mentioned  documents, 
\vhich  really  hang  together. 

When  Constantius  banished  Liberius  on  account 
of  his  defence  of  the  Catholic  faith,  the  Roman 
clergy  elected  and  consecrated  the  presbyter  ^  Felix 
as  bishop,  2  under  the  advice  and  with  the  consent 
of  Liberius.  Felix  forthwith  holds  a  council  of  forty- 
eight  bishops,  and  finds  here  that  two  presbyters,  ^ 
Ursacius  and  Valens,  agree  with  Constantius,  and 
condemns  them.  The  two  persuade  Constantius, 
and  with  his  consent  go  to  Liberius  and  offer  hirn 
return  from  banishment  on  these  terms  : — that  there 
should  be  communion  between  Arians  and  orthodox, 
but   that   the    kilter   should  not   be  required    to    be 

1  Felix  was  only  a  deacon,  rvufinus,  2,  22  ;  ilarccllin.  lAlcll.  Free. 

2  Tliis  would  only  have  Loon  possible  if  Liberius  had  abdicah  d 
at  tilt'  sarao  time,  which  he  did  not  do.  That  one  bishop  sliotdd 
njipoint  another  co-ordinately  with  himself,  or  cause  liimsrlf  to  bo 
represented  by  another  during  his  absence,  was  contrary  to  ec<  le- 
Kiastiral  law,  especially  to  one  of  the  Nicene  canons.  Wlien  after 
all  Valerius,  bishop  of  IIii)po,  did  so,  Aut^Mistine  himself,  whom  ho 
caused  to  bo  consecrated  with  the  permis.sion  of  tlic  i)rimate  of 
Carthage,  found  that  is  was  "  contra  morem  ccclesiie,"  and  accord- 
ingly gave  orders  that  at  every  ordination  the  canons  shoidd  bo 
read  beforehand  in  order  that  such  a  Irans^rcssiou  might  not  occur 
ng;iin  — I'ossid.  Yit.  Auj.,  c.  8, 

'.',  Moth  were  bislinpM,  Ursai  liis  of  Siiigidon  in  ^fysia,  Vabris  of 
Jliir.-a  in  l'aiiii>nia,  and  had  no  relaiifuis  wliatever  to  (he  Unman 
CJnuch.  'i'lie  main  supporter  of  Ariauism  iu  the  lioman  territory 
>us  Epictetus,  bifthoj)  of  Circumceilu). 


LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX.  195 

rc-baptlzcd.  ^  Libcrius  consents,  comes  back,  and 
takes  up  his  abode  in  the  cemetery  of  St.  Agnes 
with  the  emperor's  sister,  Constantia.  ^  She  is  urged 
to  gain  admittance  for  him  into  Rome  by  intercession 
with  her  brother,  but  dech'nes  as  a  true  cathoh'c. 
Constantius,  however,  summons  Liberius  to  Rome 
without  the  intervention  of  his  sister  by  the  advice  of 
the  Arians,  gets  together  a  council  of  heretics,  and 
with  its  help  deposes  the  catholic  Felix  from  his 
episcopal*  office.  The  very  same  day  a  bloody 
persecution  commences,  conducted  by  Constantius 
and  Liberius  in  concert.  The  presbyter  Euscbius 
(who  distinguishes  himself  by  his  courage  and  catholic 
zeal,  and  gathers  the  people  together  in  his  house) 
reproaches  the  emperor  and  Liberius  with  their 
crime,  declares  to  the  latter  that  he  is  no  longer 
in  any  way  the  rightful  follower  of  Julius  because  he 
had  fallen  from  the  faith,  and  to  both,  that,  in  satanic 
blindness,  they  have  driven  out  the  catholic  blameless 
Felix.  Whereupon  Constantius,  by  the  advice  of 
Liberius,  has  him  shut  up  in  a  deep  hole  only  four 

1  There  was  no  discussion  about  rc-baptism  at  tliat  time,  or  for  a 
long  time  afterwards.  The  Arians  before  Eunomius  considered 
catholic  baptism  to  be  valid. 

2  A  confusion  with  the  sister  of  Constantino  the  Great. 

3  All  this  time,  and  so  lon^c  as  Liberius  was  in  office  there,  Con- 
stantius was  not  in  liorae.  The  narrative,  however,  gives  one  to 
iiiiderataud  that  he  lived  there  regularly. 


196  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

feet  broad,  in  which  he  is  found  dead  at  the  end 
of  seven  months.  The  presbyters,  Gregory  and 
Orosius,  relations  of  Eusebius,  bury  him ;  upon 
which  the  emperor  gives  orders  to  shut  up  Gregory 
alive  in  the  same  vault  in  which  they  had  placed  the 
corpse  of  Eusebius.  Orosius  drags  him  out  from  the 
vault  by  night  half  dead  ;  he  dies,  however,  in  his 
arms,  whereupon  the  other,  Orosius,  records  the  whole 
history.  Felix,  who  had  reproached  the  emperor 
with  his  re-baptism,  is  beheaded  by  the  emperor's 
command.  The  persecution  rages  in  Rome  until  the 
death  of  Liberius.  Constantius  publishes  an  edict 
that  every  one  who  does  not  join  Liberius  shall 
be  executed  without  trial.  Clergy  and  laity  are  now 
murdered  in  the  streets  and  in  the  churches.  At  last 
Liberius  dies,  and  Dama^us  brands  his  memory  with 
infamy  in  a  synod. 

The  description  in  the  Acts  of  Eusebius  is  con- 
siderably more  highly  coloured  than  the  repre- 
sentation in  the  Liber  Pontificalis,  where  the  cir- 
cumstances are  toned  down  somewhat ;  but  the 
object  in  view,  viz.,  to  quash  Liberius  and  make  him 
appear  as  Constantius'  companion  in  guilt,  shines 
through  it  all  from  beginqing  to  end.  That  the  acts 
of  Eusebius  were  composed  in  the  interest  of  the 
antipope    Felix,    has    been    already    remarked    by 


LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX.  igj 

Cavalcanti.  ^  It  appears  to  me  that  there  was  another 
object  joined  with  this,  viz.,  to  place  the  bloody 
scenes,  which  occurred  in  consequence  of  the  divided 
election  of  Ursinus  and  Damasus,  and  which  may 
have  left  behind  them  a  misty  recollection  even  two 
centuries  later  in  Rome,  in  a  light  more  favourable 
to  the  clergy  of  the  time;  and,  by  this  means,  the 
events  were  ante-dated  by  two  years,  and  represented 
as  persecutions  of  the  staunch  catholic  clergy  by  the 
two  Arians,  the  pope  and  the  emperor.  And  they 
even  went  so  far  in  their  rejection  of  Liberius  and 
efforts  to  put  Felix  in  his  place,  that  in  the  chro- 
nological notices  of  the  Liberian  basilica,  built  by 
that  very  pope,  they  passed  Liberius  over  altogether, 
and  placed  Felix  alone  between  Julius  and  Damasus. 
Thus,  then,  Felix  was  gradually  thrust  into  the 
lists  of  the  popes,  the  liturgies,  and  martyrologies,  as 
rightful  pope  and  a  holy  martyr ;  not,  however,  until 
a  late  date,  and,  as  regards  the  martyrologies,  only 
slowly.  Optatus  and  Augustinus  had  passed  him 
over  in  their  lists  of  the  bishops  of  Rome.  The 
twenty-ninth  of  July  was  the  day  which  had  been 
dedicated  to  his  memory.  But  here,  when  the 
calendars  and  martyrologies  were  examined  and 
compared,  the  deception  became  palpably  manifest, 

1   Vindicia  Rom.  Fonlif. 


198  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

and  showed  that  the  Feh'x  there  celebrated  was  quite 
a  different  one  ;  and  that  not  until  the  eighth  century, 
after  the  false  legends  about  Felix  and  Euscbius  had 
been  forged,  did  it  occur  to  people  to  declare  that  this 
Felix  was  the  rival  of  Liberius.  The  oldest  document 
as  yet  known  is  the  Roman  calendar,  which  Martcne 
has  published  in  the  fifth  volume  of  his  Thesaurus. 
He  assigns  it  to  the  beginning  of  the  fifth  century ; 
and  rightly,  for,  with  a  single  exception  (Sylvester),  it 
contains  festivals  of  martyrs  only,  and  Sylvester  is  the 
latest  of  the  saints  mentioned  in  it.  Hence  Damasus, 
though  canonised  at  an  early  date,  is  wanting.  Here, 
then,  the  twenty-eighth  of  July  was  marked  as  ^ 
natalis  s.  Fclicis,  Simplicii,  Faustini,  ct  Bcatricis.  In 
all  other  cases  the  designation  "  papa"  is  added  to  the 
names  of  the  popes  in  this  calendar.  Several 
martyrologics,  which  bear  the  name  of  St.  Jerome, 
and,  2  judging  from  their  chief  contents,  belong  to  the 
fifth  century  (the  period  before  Cassiodorus),  agree 
with  this.  That  of  Bede  likewise,  without  mention- 
ing Rome.  Then  the  ]\Iartyrologinin  Ottaboiiianuin 
of  the  tenth,  and  the  KalciidariHui  Laurcshainciisc  ^ 

So   also  tho    Sreramenlarium    Gregorianiim.      Elsewlioro    it   is 
ahviiys  tlic  twcnfy-ninlli. 

2  In  Miirtciie,  Thes.  iii.,  1558. 

3  Dutli  iu  Giorgi'8  oditiou  of  Ado,  p.  C33,  G92. 


LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX.  199 

of  the  end  of  the  ninth  century.  On  the  other  hand, 
that  of  St.  Jerome  in  D'Achery  separates  Felix  from 
the  three  others  which  manifestly  belong  to  Rome, 
and  transfers  ^  him  to  Africa.  The  Vatican  calendar 
itself,  of  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  century,  ^ 
agrees  also  with  this.  But  ho.w  Felix  got  transferred 
from  Africa  to  Rome  is  explained  by  a  martyrology 
of  Auxerre,  which  falls  well  into  the  end  of  the  ninth 
century  (the  latest  of  the  numerous  popes  men- 
tioned in  it  is  Zacharias),  (741-752)  and  is  especially 
rich  in  Roman  material,  and  accurate  in  local 
notices ;  so  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  its 
Roman  origin.  This  is  what  it  says  at  the  twenty- 
ninth  of  July  : — "  Romai  via  Aurclia  translatio 
"corporis  bcati  Fclicis  episcopi  ct  martyris  qui  iv. 
"  idus  Novcmbris  martyrio  coronatus  est.  Fodcni 
"  die  ss.  mm.  Simplicii,  Faustinii  et  s.  Bcatrlcis  m. 
*'  sororis  corum."  *  It  appears,  therefore,  that  the 
bones  of  the  African  martyr,  Felix,  were  brought  to 
Rome,  and  that  only  on  account  of  this  translation, 
which  took  place  on  the  twenty-ninth  of  July,  Fcli.K 
was  joined  with  the  Roman  martyrs  Simplicius, 
Faustinus,    and    Bcatri.x,    to    whom    this    day    was 

1  Spi'-iU;.,  ii.,  15,  nor.  cd. 

2  In  Giorpi,  p.  699. 

3  lu  Martcne,  Coll.  Ampl.,  vi.,  712. 


200  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX, 

already  dedicated.  Thus  there  are  other  martyr- 
ologies  and  missals,  in  which  Felix  is  not  found,  but 
only  the  three  others.  In  the  so-called  Sacranicn- 
tarium  of  Gelasius  he  is  wanting  also,  although 
Simplicius,  Faustinus,  and  Viatrix  (or  Beatrix)  are 
celebrated.  ^  In  the  later  Gregorian  Sacramefttarinm, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  day  is  given  as  the  birthday  of 
the  four  saints,  but  in  such  a  way  that  in  the  Oratio 
Felix  alone  is  celebrated,  and  that  as  "martyr  ct 
"  pontifex."  In  the  martyrology  of  the  year  826,  2 
found  at  Corbie,  as  well  as  in  the  Martyrologiiim 
Morbacense,  and  in  the  Calcndarium  Anglicanuin, 
only  Simplicius,  Faustinus,  and  Beatrix  are  men- 
tioned.^ Most  of  them  simply  mention  Felix  without 
further  designation,  along  with  the  other  three  ;  or, 
like  the  Neapolitan  of  the  ninth  century,  say^  "  Fclicis 
"  et  Simplicii ;"  or,  "  in  Africa  Felicis,"  &c.,  as  the 
calendar  of  Stablo. 

With  the  eighth  century,  however,  begins,  on  the 
other  hand,  the  line  of  calendars  and  martyrologies 
which  make  Felix  a  pope,  and  of  course  mean  one  to 

1  In  Muratori,  Liturgia  Romana  Vetua,  i.,  658  ;  ii.,  106. 

2  D'Achcry,  SpieiL,  ii.,  66. 

3  Tho  Calendarium  Anglicnnum  (of  tho  year  1000)  in  Marteno 
Coll.  ampl ,  vi.,  G55.  TliO  Martyrologium  Morbacense  ia  Marteno, 
2'hesaur.,  in.,  1570. 

2  la  Mai.  Coli.,  r.,  63. 


LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX.  201 

understand  the  antipope  of  A.D.  356.  The  first  is  the 
Roman  calendar  of  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century, 
edited  by  Fronto.  ^  Next  to  this  comes  the  martyr- 
ology  which  Rosweyde  was  the  first  to  print ;  which, 
however,  is  not  a  Roman  one,  as  the  editor  and  the 
Bollandists  have  stated.  ^  It  already  contains  the 
fable  of  Felix's  martyrdom  under  Constantius,  It  is 
from  this  source,  or  from  the  legends,  or  from  the 
book  of  the  popes,  that  Ado  has  drawn  ;  and  the 
subsequent  martyrologists  for  the  most  part  have 
copied  him.  Usuard,  Notker,  Rabanus,  Wandclbcrt, 
follow  in  the  same  track. 

St.  Eusebius,  celebrated  on  the  fourteenth  of 
August,  is  found  in  almost  all  calendars  and  martyr- 
ologics,  with  the  exception  of  the  oldest,  which  belongs 
to  the  fifth  century.  This  one,  however,  mentions 
the  church  of  St.  Eusebius  as  already  existing  in 
Rome,  because  here  was  a  "  statio  "  on  the  Friday  in 
the  fourth  week  of  Lent.  In  the  martyrologies  of  St. 
Jerome,  and  in  that  of  Bcde,  one  reads  at  the  four- 
teenth of  August,  "  Eusebii  tituli  conditoris."  From 
which  it  appears  that  his  festival  in  the  first  instance 
was  celebrated  only  in  the  church  which  he  had  built, 

1  Epistola  et  Dissert.  Fccles.,  cd.  Veron,  1733,  p.  185.  Exaratum 
intra  tempora  Gregorii  II.  and  III.,  according  to  Borgia,  JJc  C,uc« 
Valicani. 

2  Seu  on  this  point  argument  of  Fiouto,  1.  c,  p.  137. 


202  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

thence  passed  into  the  Roman  calendars,  and  from 
them  into  those  of  other  countries.  Nearer  notices  of 
him  do  not  exist,  and  even  from  the  sixth  century 
and  further  were  not  to  be  found.  Hence  it  was  all 
the  more  easy  for  the  intentional  fiction,  which  aimed 
at  distorting  the  history  of  Liberius  and  Felix,  to 
make  use  of  his  name,  and  transform  him  into  the 
hero  of  a  tragedy,  which  should  set  forth  the  Arianism 
and  cruelty  of  Liberius  in  strong  colours. 

Here,  then,  as  in  other  cases,  it  was  the  Lihcr 
Pontificalis  that  created  the  new  tradition,  which  has 
influenced  chroniclers  and  the  papal  biographers. 
The  glaring  contradictions  of  the  Liber  Pontificalis, 
which  resulted  from  the  unthinking  interpolations  of 
later  hands,  were  at  that  time  not  observed.  In  the* 
biography  of  Liberius,  which  was  correctly  composed 
before  any  one  thought  of  giving  Felix  a  special 
biographical  article,  Felix  dies  peacefully  (rcquievit 
in  pace)  on  his  own  estate,  on  the  first  of  August. 
On  the  other  hand,  in  the  article  respecting  him,  a 
few  lines  farther  on,  he  is  beheaded  with  many  clergy 
and  laity,  on  the  eleventh  of  November.  The  author 
ol  this  article,  in  order  that  nothing  should  be  wanting 
lor  Felix's  papal  dignity,  wished  to  represent  him  also 
as  the  builder  of  a  church,  and  so  represents  him  as 
again  building  the  very  "Basihca  in  via  Aurciia," 


LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX.  203 

which  in  the  article  on  Felix  the  First  (a.D.  269-275) 
had  already  been  mentioned  as  Felix's  work.  All 
the  following  writers  of  papal  history  have  therefore' 
naturally  followed  this  account : — Pseudo-Luitprand, 
Abbo  of  Fleury,  the  anonymous  chronographer  in 
Pcz.i  Martinus  Polonus,  Leo  of  Orvieto,  Bernard 
Guidonis,  Amalricus  Augerii.  Felix  is  set  forth  as 
the  thirty-ninth  rightful  pope.  The  revelation  of  the 
secret,  that  Constantius  had  caused  himself  to  be 
re-baptized  by  Eusebius  of  Nicomedia,  costs  him  his 
life,  and  Liberlus  reigned  for  five  years,  as  an  Arian, 
and  by  his  Arianism  caused  the  martyrdom  of  many 
clergy  and  laity.  Nevertheless,  all  that  he  did  and 
ordered  was  declared  null  and  void  after  his  death  by 
Damasus.  Bernard  Guidonis  makes  the  addition  of 
a  martyrdom,  which  Eusebius  is  made  to  endure 
because  he  proclaimed  Liberius  to  be  a  heretic.^ 

From  that  time  onwards  the  theologians  accom- 
modated themselves  to  the  prevailing  view,  especially 
in  Rome  itself.  Who  docs  not  know,  says  the  Roman 
presbyter  Auxilius,  the  defender  of  Formosus,  that 
Liberius  gave  his  assent  to  the  Arian  heresy,  and  that 
at  his  instigation  the  most  horrible  abominations  were 
practised  ?  ^     And  towards  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 

1   Thes.  Anccd^  i.,  p.  3-13.         2  In  Mui,  S^icileg.,  d.,  60. 
8  De  Or  din.,  i.,  25. 


204  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

century  Anselm,  bishop  of  Havelberg,  reproaches  the 
Greeks,  because  Constantius  had  caused  Felix  to  be 
put  to  death  for  reveahng  the  fact  of  his  second 
baptism.  But  he  makes  excuses  for  Liberius,  who  no 
doubt  had  allowed  much  that  was  heretical,  but  had 
nevertheless  steadfastly  refused  to  allow  himself  to  be 
re-baptized.  ^ 

The  Abbot  Hugo  of  Flavigny  (1090-1102)  goes  a 
step  farther  in  his  chronicle ;  he  makes  Liberius  also 
receive  baptism  a  second  time  as  a  thorough  ^  Arian. 
Eccard,  in  his  most  influential  chronicle,  ^  Romuald 
of  Salerno,  the  papal  historian  Tolomeo  of  Lucca,  the 
Eulogiiun  of  the  monk  of  Malmesburg,  all  follow  the 
usual  fabulous  tradition,  that  Liberius  remained  till 
the  day  of  his  death — six,  or  (according  to  Tolomeo  ^) 
eight  years — persistently  heretical,  while  Felix  is  the 
catholic  martyr.  Nevertheless,  with  Marianus  Scotus, 
Gottfried  of  Viterbo,  and  Robert  Abolant,  the  au- 
thority of  Jerome  is  still  so  powerful,  that  they  narrate 
how  Felix  was  violently  thrust  into  office  by  the 
Arians. 

When  at  last  the  era  of  historical  criticism  and  the- 
ological  investigation   came    in  with    the   sixteenth 

2  Dialog.,  iii.,  21,  in  D'Achcry,  Spicil.,  i.,  207. 

3  In  Pertz,  x.,  301. 

4  Ptrtz,  viii.,  113. 

6  "  Vixit  in  lioc  crroro  annis  octo." — Muratori,  SS.  It.,  xi.,  p.  S"3, 


LIBERT  us  AND  FELIX.  205 

century,  no  small  amount  of  helplessness  was  exhibited. 
Hitherto  Felix  had  been  regarded  as  rightful  pope, 
and  the  time  of  his  pontificate  was  reckoned  at  a  year 
and  somewhat  more.  According  to  this  view,  Lib- 
erius  would  be  deprived  of  his  office  by  sentence  of  the 
church,  on  account  of  his  lapse  into  Arianism,  and 
then  Felix  came  in  as  rightful  pope,  until  at  the  end  of 
a  year  he  suffered  martyrdom.  Liberius,  however,  is 
said  to  have  survived  him  by  several  years,  and  to 
have  remained  an  Arian  till  his  death.  He  could  not 
therefore  again  become  lawful  pope  after  the  death  of 
Felix.  Nor  was  the  hypothesis  of  a  vacancy  of  the 
see  for  several  years  either  admissible  or  attempted 
On  the  contrary,  an  interregnum  of  thirty-eight  days 
is  all  that  the  Liber  Poniificalis  records  after  the 
death  of  Felix.  This  created  a  difficulty  for  the  theolo- 
gians, of  which  they  did  not  know  how  to  dispose,  if 
Felix  was  to  be  retained  in  his  position  as  pope  and 
saint ;  and  the  historians  could  not  deny  the  irrccon- 
cileable  contradiction  to  all  contemporary  inform- 
ation. Cardinal  Baronius  had  already  composed  a 
treatise  to  show  that  Felix  was  neither  a  saint  nor  a 
pope.  Gregory  XHI.  had  appointed  a  special  con- 
gregation to  decide  the  question.  And  then  (1582) 
during  some  excavations  under  an  altar  dedicated  to 
SS.  Cosmo  and  Damian,  a  body  was  found  with  an 

18 


2o6  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

inscription  on  stone — "  Corpus  S.  Fclicis  Pap.x  et 
Martyris  qui  conclcmnavit  Constantium."  The  stone 
with  the  inscription  vanished  again  soon  afterwards, 
and  Schelstrate  ^  laments  that  search  was  made  for 
it  in  vain.  The  wording  of  the  inscription  in  itself 
would  have  been  quite  sufficient  to  prove  it  at  once 
to  be  the  clumsy  invention  of  a  later  age.  But  Bar- 
onius  and  the  congregation  thought  otherwise  ;  and 
so  Felix  kept  his  place  as  pope  and  martyr  in  the 
corrected  Roman  martyrology.  Nevertheless,  the 
place  was 2  expunged  from  the  subsequent  editions 
of  the  older  Roman  breviaries,  in  which  the  martyr- 
dom of  Euscbius,  for  merely  rebuking  the  Arianism 
of  Libcrius,  was  related  in  the  words  of  Ado.  More- 
over in  the  Oratio  of  the  breviary  the  designation  of 
Felix  as  "  pope  "  was  removed.  But  even  such  a  man 
as  Bossuet  could  allow  himself,  on  the  strength  of 
documents  so  palpably  forged,  to  represent  Liberius 
as  an  obstinate  heretic  and  bloody  persecutor  of  true  ^ 
catholics.  Still  he  contends  against  Baronius,  who 
had  accepted  the  wholesale  persecution  and  butchery 
of  the  catholics  in  Rome  under  Libcrius  as  a  literal 
fact. 

1  Andquil.  lUustr.,  \. 

2  See  Launoi,  Epist.  5,  p.  41. 

3  De/ens.  Decl.  Gall.,  p.  3,  1.  9,  c.  33. 


LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX.  207 

To  complete  it  all,  in  the  year  1790,  a  Roman 
ecclesiastic,  Paul  Anton  Paoli,!  undertook  in  a  lengthy- 
work  to  prov^c  the  legitimacy  of  Felix,  and  the 
authenticity  of  his  sufferings  and  acts.  He  has 
succeeded,  he  says,  in  accomplishing  the  feat,  hitherto 
considered  an  impossibility,  of  making  both  the  rivals, 
Liberius  and  Felix,  appear  as  innocent  and  guiltless, 
both  of  them  together,  as  legitimate  popes.  All, 
according  to  him,  rests  upon  misunderstandings  and 
untrue  reports.  Athanasius,  Hilary,  Jerome,  all  their 
contemporaries,  have  been  found  to  be  in  uninten- 
tional and  unavoidable  error.  In  Rome  men  were 
obliged  to  believe  that  the  papal  chair  became  vacant 
through  Liberius'  guilt,  which,  however,  in  reality 
was  not  the  case,  and  hence  Felix  was  elected.  The 
Acts  of  Eusebius  are  genuine  and  contemporary.  All 
the  awkward  statements  which  they  contain  are  set 
aside  by  the  convenient  and  never-failing  resource  of 
supposing  them  to  be  later  interpolations.  Moreover, 
the  author  has  fortunately  discovered  that  Felix  lived 
concealed  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rome  for  thirty- 
four  years  after  he  was  driven  out  of  the  city ; 
although  contemporaneous  evidence  makes  him  al- 
ready dead  in  the  year  365,  and,  although  there  was 

1  Di  San  Felice  Secondo  Papa  e  Martire  Duttrlazzioni,  Eoma,  1790. 
With  a  supplement  of  oyer  400  pages  quarto. 


2o8  LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX. 

no  conceivable  reason  for  his  concealment,  after  the 
death  of  Constantius. 

The  whole  is  a  structure  of  ill-conceived  hypotheses 
and  conjectures,  which  crumbles  to  dust  at  the  first 
breath  of  sober  historical  investigation. 

That  Felix  was  never  rightful  bishop  of  Rome,  but 
a  mere  tool  of  the  Arians,  foisted  upon  the  people, 
and  successfully  rejected  by  them,  has  been  admitted 
by  all  the  better  ecclesiastical  historians,  Panvinius, 
Lupus,  Hermant,  Tillemont,  Natalis  Alexander, 
Fleury,  Baillet,  Coutant,  Ceillier.  In  Rome  itself 
cardinal  Orsi  ^  has  let  his  own  view,  which  agrees  with 
theirs,  shine  through,  partly  by  a  meaning  silence, 
partly  by  the  appellation  "  antipopc,"  which  he  gives 
to  Felix,  though  he  only  mentions  him  once  in  passing. 
Saccarelli  ^  has  shown,  quite  decisively  and  with 
correct  judgment,  that  it  is  historically  necessary  to 
strike  out  Felix  from  the  list  of  Roman  bishops. 
Saccarelli's  contemporary,  the  Augustinian  monk 
Bcrti,  in  one  of  his  treatises  on  ecclesiastical  history, 
has  stated  the  reasons  usually  given  for  and  against 
Felix  having  a  place  in  the  list  of  the  popes  in  such  a 
way,  that  he  makes  one  sensible  of  the  weakness  of 
the  fanner ;  and  then  ^  adds,  as  if  by  way  of  a  joke, 

1  hlori.  Eccles.,  vi ,  201,  «>d.  in  12mo. 

2  Uiiil.  Eccles.,  v.,  334.  Rome,  1777. 

3  "  Ilterct,  ut  aiunt,  in  aqua :  noquo  enim  tarditate  ingcnioli  mei 


LIBERIUS  AND  FELIX.  209 

that  he  does  not  venture  to  decide.  Later  on,  three 
other  Roman  authors,  Novaes,  Sangallo,  and  Palma, 
the  two  first  in  their  biographies  of  the  popes,  the 
last  in  his  ecclesiastical  history,  have  given  up  the 
case  ^  of  Felix  as  untenable.^ 

"  pcrcfperc  possnm,  quomodo,  scdente  Liberio,  Felix  vcrus  Pontifer 
"  sit  habcndus,"  etc. — Ilistoria  Eecles.  s.  Dissert,  hist.,  iii.,  466,  Aug. 
ITCI.  This  reluctance  to  speak  his  meaning  openly  la  easily  ex- 
plained by  the  fact,  that  cardinal  Lambertini  (afterwards  popo 
Benedict  XIV.)  in  his  work  Dt  Canoniz.  Sanctorum,  1,  4,  p.  2.  c.  27, 
14,  had  just  maintained,  to  the  no  small  astonishment  of  all  who 
•were  acquainted  with  ecclesiastical  antiquity,  "Do  S.  Felicis  11^ 
"sanctitatc  et  martyrio  nullam  amplius  superesse  dubitationera,  scd 
"disputari  ab  cruditis  duntaxat  de  qualitato  rationequo  martyrii." 
When  therefore  cardinal  Borgia,  in  his  Apologia  del  Pontificato  Bene- 
detto X.,  says,  "passa  quasi  per  dimostrata  a  lcgittimitt\  del  ponti- 
"  ficato  di  St.  Felice  per  quelli  che  suppongono  la  caduta  di  Liberio," 
he  is  stating  what  is  manifestly  incorrect. 

1  Novaes,  Elementi  delta  Storia  d^  Sommi  Fontefici,  Roma,  1821 
1,   128;    Sangallo,   Gett.  de*  I'ontef.,  Hi.,  496;   Palma,  Frockciiones 
Hist.  Ecclcs.  ii.,  129. 

2  [In  the  busts  of  the  popes  in  the  cathedral  at  Sienna  the  bust  of 
Pope  Joan  has  been  transformed  into  pope  Zacliarias.  (See  p.  30.) 
Felix,  however,  retains  his  place  there  to  this  day.] 


VII.  ANASTASIUS  XL 

Daxte  sees  in  hell,  in  the  circle  of  false  teachers  and 
their  followers,  the  cover  of  a  large  tomb,  with  an 
inscription  stating  that  this  tomb  contains  pope  ^ 
Anastasius, 

"  Whom  out  of  the  right  way  Photinus  drew." 

Now,  it  must  always  be  a  matter  for  astonishment 
that  the  great  poet,  when  it  occurred  to  him  to 
re])rcscnt  a  pope  as  suffering  the  fate  of  a  heretic, 
should  have  chosen  precisely  this  one,  one  of  the  least 
known  in  the  Roman  list     One  would  have  thought 

1  li'f.  xi.,  9. 

[E  quivi  per  I'  orrihilc  soporrhio 

Dl'1  j)uzzo,  cho  '1  profondo  abisso  gitta 
Ci  raccostiimmo  dictro  ad  uu  coperchio 
D'lin  grand'  avullo,  ov'  io  vidi  una  scritta, 
Che  diccva  :  "  Anastagio  Papa  guardo, 
Lo  qual  trasse  Fotino  della  via  drittu" — xi.,  4-9. 
And  there  by  reason  of  the  horrible 

Excess  of  stench  the  deep  abyss  throws  out, 
Wc  drew  ourselves  aside  behind  tlic  cover 
Of  a  great  tomb,  whereon  I  saw  a  writing, 
Wliich  said  :  "Pope  Anastasius  I  hold, 
Whom  out  of  the  right  way  Photinus  drew." 

Longfellow's  Translation. 
"  TIk'  commentators  arc  not  agreed  concerning  the  person  wlio  is 
"  here  minti()n(!d  as  a  follower  of  the  heretical  Photiniis.     By  some 

*•  lie  is  supposed  to  have  been  Anastasius  II. ;  by  others,  IV.;  while  a 

210 


ANASTASTUS  II.  211 

that  Liberius  or  Honorius  would  have  been  much 
more  ready  to  his  hand  for  this  purpose,  the  first 
especially,  who,  according  to  the  account  which 
prevailed  everywhere  in  the  Middle  Ages,  rultd  at 
Rome  for  several  years  before  his  death  as  a 
notorious  Arian,  so  that,  as  was  supposed,  ardent 
catholics  died  as  martyrs  because  of  him. 

It  was  Gratian's  Decrctinn  which,  directly  or 
indirectly,  determined  the  Florentine  poet  in  his 
choice.  That  is  to  say,  Gratian,  according  to  the 
precedent  of  the  Ivonian  decretal,  inserted  a  passage 
from  the  Pontifical  ^  book,  in   which    it  is  said  that 

"third  set,  jealous  of  tho  inti^f^iity  of  the  papal  failh,  contend  that 
"  our  poet  lias  confoimded  him  with  Anastasius  I.,  emperor  of  tlio 
"  East.     Fazio  degii  Uberti,  liko  our  author,  makes  him  a  pope  ; — 

"  Anastasio  pajia  in  quel  temi>o  era 

"  Di  Fotiu  vayo  a  mal  grade  de  sui, — Ditlam-^ndo,  ii.,  14." 

Cary's  note  in  loco. 
ThoRC  who  would  save  tlie  pope  at  tho  cxpcn.sc  of  the  emperor  say 
that  Photinus  died  before  the  time  of  popo  Ana.stiisius  II.  Both 
pope  and  emperor  were  called  heretical  out  of  respect  to  the 
memory  of  Aracius.  But  the  emperor  need  not  be  con.sidered  here. 
Danto  probably  knew  what  he  meant,  and  when  he  says  pope, 
means  pope,  and  not  emperor.] 

1  Decret.,  i.,  dist.  19,  9.  [Gratian's  DccreVim  appeared  at  Bologna, 
the  first  school  of  law  in  Europe,  about  1150.  It  combined  the 
I.sidorian  forgeries  with  those  of  Di-usdedit,  Anselm,  Gregory  of 
Pavia,  and  Gratian  himself.  It  displaced  all  the  older  collections 
of  canon  law,  and  became  the  usual  manual  for  canonists  and  theolo- 
gians. No  book  has  ever  had  such  influence  in  the  Church,  although 
it  teems  with  errors,  both  intentional  and  unintentional.  For  further 
particulars,  see  Jauus,  Der  Papst  und  das  Concil,  iii.,  p.  154-162.] 


212  ANASTASIUS  IT. 

many  persons  in  Rome  separated  themselves  from 
the  company  of  Pope  Anastasius,  because  he  had 
entered  into  church  communion  with  the  deacon 
Photinus  of  Thessalonica,  and  intended  secretly  to 
bring  Acacius  again  into  honour  in  the  Church.  For 
which  reason  God  had  punished  him  with  sudden 
death.  Throughout  the  Middle  Ages  Gratian's 
Decretuin}-  was  accounted  a  decisive  authority;  it  did 
not  readily  occur  to  any  one  to  doubt  the  facts  and 
doctrines  stated  in  it ;  and  hence  it  comes  to  pass  that 
the  memory  of  pope  Anastasius  II.  has  come  down 
to  posterity  as  that  of  a  man  prone  to  heresy,  from 
whose  communion  in  the  Church  it  was  right  to 
withdraw  oneself,  pope  though  he  was ;  and  only  by 
his  sudden  death  was  still  greater  mischief  warded  off 
from  the  Church.  Now  what  was  there  to  justify  this 
view  ? 

The  Byzantine  emperors  were  perpetually  finding 
themselves  impelled  by  the  political  condition  of  the 
empire  to  endeavour  to  reconcile  the  powerful  party 
of  the  Monophysites  to  the  Church,  and  thus  heal, 
not  merely  an  ecclesiastical,  but  also  a  political 
disorder,  and  ward  off  the  grave  danger  which  was 

1  [It  became  eomparatively  obsolete  after  Gregory  IX.  caused  the 
five  books  of  Decretals  to  be  published  by  Raimond  do  Pennafort  in 
1234.  It  was,  in  fact,  msuiScient  for  tho  increasing  usurpations  of 
the  popes.] 


ANASTASIUS  II.  213 

threatening  the  State.  With  this  object,  the  emperor 
Zeno,  advised  by  Acacius,  patriarch  of  Constantinople, 
had  published  the  Henoticoii  (482),  which  declared 
the  binding  authority  and  dogmatic  decisions  of  the 
council  of  Chalcedon,  so  hateful  to  all  Monophysites, 
to  be  an  open  question.  This  ended  in  pope  Felix  II. 
calling  a  synod,  and  declaring  Acacius  anathema. 
Acacius  himself  certainly  remained  all  the  while 
catholic  in  his  doctrine,  but  he  sacrificed  the  council 
of  Chalcedon  for  the  sake  of  peace,  and  entered  into 
church  communion  with  all  Monophysites  who  had 
accepted  the  Hcnoticon.  Acacius  had  almost  the 
whole  East  on  his  side,  and  as  Rome  broke  off  from 
every  one  who  remained  in  communion  with  Acacius, 
a  schism  in  the  Church  between  East  and  West  for 
thirty-five  years  was  the  consequence. 

The  successors  of  Acacius  were  bidden  to  strike 
his  name  off  the  diptychs  as  one  who  had  died  under 
excommunication  ;  and  the  popes  Felix  and  Gelasius 
demanded  this  as  a  condition  of  communion.  This, 
however,  the  patriarchs  dared  not  do,  for  fear  of  a 
popular  commotion  ;  and  Rome  would  not  give  way, 
although  Gelasius  himself  confessed  that  the 
expectation,  that  the  Orientals  would  prefer  com- 
munion with  the  See  of  Rome  to  every  other  con- 
sideration, had  proved^  a  delusion. 

1  Concilia,  cd.  Labbe,  iv.,  1173. 


214  ANASTASIUS  II. 

The  separation  had  lasted  already  elcv^cn  years, 
when  pope  Anastasius  ascended  the  papal  throne. 
He  had  peace  with  the  Eastern  Church  more  at 
heart  than  his  two  predecessors  had  had.  He  did, 
therefore,  what  Gelasius  had  refused  to  do,  even  at 
the  request  of  the  patriarch  Euphemius ;  he  sent 
two  bishops  as  his  legates  to  Constantinople,  still, 
however,  contending  that  the  name  of ,  Acacius 
must  no  more  be  mentioned  at  the  altar.  In  a 
contemporaneous  Roman  fragment  mention  is  made 
of  the  letter  which  the  pope  sent  at  the  time  to  the 
emperor.  The  reader  will  thence  see  on  what 
worthless  grounds  the  still  continuing  schism  between 
the  East  and  the  West  ^  rested.  At  this  point 
Photinus  arrived  in  Rome,  a  man  who  seems  to  have 
been  active  in  ecclesiastical  negotiations,  and  who 
probably  had  received  a  commission  from  the 
Orientals  to  win  the  pope  over  to  the  cause  of  union. 
Anastasius  admitted  him  to  communion,  although 
from  the  Roman  point  of  view  he  belonged  to  the 
schismatical  party,  that  is  to  say,  remained  in  alliance 
with  those  who  honoured  the  memory  of  Acacius. 
And  the  pope  showed  himself  ^  ready  to  give  way  in 

1  Tm  T'.lanfliini,  N'of.v,  Vftrior.  ad  Ananas,  iii.,  200. 

2  'I'lic  cxini'ssioiiVif  tli;  bio^^raplicriti  tlir  I'oiililiijil  liook,  "ornilfc 
"voluit  rivor.-iro  Ac'icium,"  i.s  to  In;  umlcr.stdod  of  llic  r.-iiiscitioii  of 
liis  iiiunc  in  t!ic  diptychs.  "Id  noiinisi  dc  illiiis  noiriinu  sacrig 
"diptychis  rcstituundo  intelUgl  potest,"  says  Viifuuli  (Liber.  I'tnit-/., 


ANASTASIUS  IT.  215 

the  question  of  mentioning  Acacius  name  at  the 
altar,  and  thus  renounce  the  haughty  bearing  which, 
as  excmphfieJ   in  the   conduct  of  his   predecessors, 

1,  171)  quite  rip:litly.  Cirdinal  Mni,  following  in  the  track  of  many 
others  (IJaroniiis,  Ucllarniinc,  Honimier,  &c.),  says  in  his  note  to 
r>(!rnanl  GiiiiU)ni3  (S/ncil.,  vi.,  98),  that  the  statement  in  tho  I'on- 
titieal  book  cannot  be  true;  Anastasius  cannot  have  cherisliod  tlio 
intention  of  seciuinj;  for  the  name  of  Acacius  mention  in  tlie 
litnrj^y,  because  he,  like  his  predecessors,  in  th«  letter  whiclihesent 
to  the  emperor  immediately  after  liis  promotion  to  the  pai)acy,  had 
demanded  that  tiiis  name  should  bo  suppressed.  I>ut,  in  matters  of 
history,  it  can  scarcely  ba  tliought  possible  to  build  on  such  weak 
arp,uments.  Certainly  Anastasius  did  do  this  in  the  first  few  wetks 
of  his  pontificate,  on  entering  upon  the  heritage  of  his  predecessors. 
But  what  can  be  more  natural  than  that  a  ]>eace-loving  pope,  ha\ing 
become  convinced  of  the  impracticability  of  his  own  harti  reciuisition, 
one  which  shocked  the  feelings  of  millions  [nearly  tin;  whole  East 
remained  true  to  Acacius],  should  have  shown  a  disjiosition  to 
renounce  a  demand,  with  the  surrender  of  which  not  a  single 
essential  principle  of  churdi  disci{)Iiiie  was  siirrendered.  If  it  was 
jiossilih-  in  tlie  case  of  a  man,  who  for  a  hundred  and  tliirty  years 
after  liis  death  had  remained  in  the  enjoyment  of  chunji  lom- 
munioii  and  intercession  (Theodore  of  Mopsuestia),  at  last  to  exp'  1 
}iim,  when  men  bi'came  convinced  of  the  fundamental  heterodoxy  of 
liis  writing's,  it  surely  was  possible,  in  the  case  o(  a,  bishop,  who  liad 
always  acknowledged  catholic  dogma,  and  had  only  erred  in  n 
formal  way,  and  luider  very  extt'nuating  circumstances,  to  release 
liim  after  his  deatli  from  the  anathema  whieb  had  been  pronoimc<(I 
on  him,  when  on  this  act  of  clemency  depended  the  well-being  and 
peace  of  the  whole  Church. 

[The  anathema  against  Acacius  was  prnnounred  by  Felix  in  an 
nnusually  stiong  form.  It  was  declari'd  to  be  irreversible  by  any 
power,  even  by  1'%'li.x  liimself:  "Nun(piam<iiu;  anathematis  vinctili.s 
•'eiuendus." — f'pixt.  Felic.  ad  Acarium.  In  a  subsequent  letter  to 
Zeiio,  I'elix  maint.iins  thisinexonible  position  :  "  T'n<le  divinojudicio 
"nullatenus  potuit,  et'am  qunm  id  malfiuf.  nbsolvi." — E/uxt.  xi. 
■\Viiting  to  Fravitta,  wlio  succeeded  Acacius  in  a  brief  patriarcliato 
of  four  months,  Felix  intinKit"s  that  A<'aeius  is  doubtless  with  .Judas 
in  h  11.  r.ut  the  an:'th  nia  was  nlmo<t  a  lir'.tnm  fulmen  in  the 
Fast.  Acariiis  maiiitaiiied  bis  i>atriarc  hat"  till  his  death,  and  the 
other  three  pai:iar  lis  of  .\iitio.  li,  Alexandria,  and  Jerusalem 
remainetl  in  commuuiou  with  him. — Milmau'a  Latin  Chrislianiti/, 
bk.  iii.,  c.i.J 


2i6  ANASTASIUS  IT. 

had  given  such  offence  to  the  East.  But  in  Rome, 
where  it  was  considered  a  duty  and  point  of  honour 
not  to  depart  from  the  path  of  Felix  and  Gelasius, 
this  excited  great  displeasure ;  and  it  came  to  a 
formal  separation  from  Anastasius,  for  being  willing 
to  sacrifice  the  righteous  cause  of  the  Roman  See,  the 
authority  of  his  predecessors,  and  the  validity  of  the 
Chalcedonian  decrees  for  the  sake  of  an  insecure 
peace.  The  premature  and  unexpected  death  of  the 
pope  at  this  position  of  affairs  was  regarded  by  those 
who  had  separated  from  him  as  a  providential  dcliv^er- 
ance  of  the  Church  from  very  great  danger. 

The  later  commentators  on  Dante — Poggiali, 
Lombardi,  and  Tommaseo  —  think  that  Dante, 
misled  by  Martinus  Polonus,  has  confusccj  pope 
Anastasius  with  the  emperor,  his  contemporary 
and  namesake.  This,  as  one  sees,  is  not  the  case.  ^ 
Philalethes  also  thinks  that,  as  Acacius  had  already 
been  dead  some  time,  the  whole  story  rests  on  an 
error ;  that  is  to  say,  he  supposes  that  the  author  of 
the  Pontifical  book  means  one  to  understand  the 
still-living  Acacius,  because  he  makes  use  of  the 
expression  (explained  in  the  note)  "  to  recall " 
[rcvocare  Acacium].  There  is,  however,  no  necessity 
for   this   adoption   of  a  glaring   anachronism.     It  is 

1  Daniels  Divine  Comedy,  Dresden,  1839,  i.,  69.     [by  tho  King  of 
Buiouy.) 


ANASTASIUS  IT.    •  217 

certainly  a  disfiguring  blot  in  Dante's  sublime 
creation  that  he  has  placed  an  innocent  and 
doctrinally  blameless  pope,  whose  desire  for  peace 
would  have  been  accounted  as  a  high  merit  in 
another  age,  in  hell  with  the  eternally  lost  heretics. 
But  the  error,  into  which  the  greatest  of  Christian 
poets  thus  fell,  lay  not  in  the  historical  fact,  but  in 
the  judgment  respecting  the  fact ;  and  this  erroneous 
judgment  Dante  shared  with  his  contemporaries,  and 
with  the  Middle  Ages  generally. 

In  the  Pontifical  book  it  is  stated,  that  Anastasius 
was  not  able  to  accomplish  his  intention  with  regard  . 
to  Acacius,  ^  because  death  overtook  him  as  a  judg- 
ment from  heaven.  This  statement  is  not  sufHcient 
for  the  chroniclers  of  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth 
centuries.     The  catastrophe  must  be  more  distinctly 

1  Cnrdinal  Jlai  nlso,  following  in  the  stops  of  P'llnrniino,  Baroniiis, 

and    XoviiL's,  maintains  that   tiic  ntithor  of    tlio    I.iler  Pontftcatia 

would  had  one  to  fiii[)poso  that  tho  pope  was  struck  hy  ii^htninj^, 

and  tiiat  this  was  a  confusion  witli  tlio  i-mpcror  Anastasiii.-;,  wlio  had 

nut  witli  tliis  kind  of  (Kath.     Kntirtly  without  foun(iation.     Tho 

I\)ntifi(  al  book  docs  not  say  one  word  ahout  li;.,'htniii.;^.     Xotliiu;:^ 

more  than  this  is  conveyed  in  what  it  says:  that  tiie  p'ipe,  owint;  lo 

his  opportune,  nn<l,  as  it  were,  divinely-sent  death,  was  prevented 

from  carryinf^  out  his  nnnous  intention.      And  tliat  (lie  enip-ror  of 

like  name  was  killed  hy  a  flash  of  lighlniuLC  is  a  late  faMe,  unknown 

to  his  contemporaries  or  to  tlie  next  generation,  and  at  the  tiinu 

whm    the   biography   of    pope   Anastasius    was   written,   was    n^t 

invented. — Conf.  Tillemont,  Hist.  <Us  Empereurs,  vi.,  5S5. 
lu 


2i8  ANASTASIUS  II. 

marked,  and  the  fate  which  overtook  the  heretical 
pope  must  be  such  as  to  excite  horror  and  disgust. 
They  transferred,  therefore,  the  story  of  the  sudden 
death  of  Arius  to  Anastasius.  He  had  gone  aside  to 
satisfy  a  call  of  nature,  and  was  found  afterwards  with 
his  intestines  out.  So  Martinus  Polonus,  Amalrich 
Augerii,  Bernard  Guidonis,  ^  Dante's  commentators 
in  the  fourteenth  century  have  followed  them.  Ac- 
cording to  them  Acacius  is  the  associate  (compagno) 
of  Photinus,  and  canon  of  Thessalonica;  but  Photinus 
seduced  the  pope  into  denying  the  divinity  of  Christ. 
A  great  disputation  between  the  pope  and  the 
cardinals,  bishops,  and  prelates,  who  rebuked  him  for 
his  false  doctrine,  ^  precedes  the  catastrophe.  The 
gloss  to  the  Dccrctum  makes  the  pope  struck  with 
leprosy. 

1  The  papnl  biographer,  Dii  Poyrat,  on  the  oontrarv,  contents 
himself  with  saying,  ''Anastasius  damnatiis  est  et  rejirobattis," — 
Notices  et  exirai/s,  vi.  [Anastasius,  tlie  Librarian  (I'atrol.  cxxviii., 
439),  says  that  the  pope,  in  punishment  for  his  error,  "nutu  divino 
"  percussus  est." — liobcrtson,  IlUt.  qf  the  Christian  Church,  i.,  p. 
527.] 

2  So  the  "false  Boccaccio,"  or  the  Chiose  sopra  Dante,  composed 
in  137.5,  Florence,  1846,  p.  87,  and  the  Latin  commentary  published 
by  Nannucci  under  the  name  of  Petrus  Alb^glierius,  Florent.,  1815, 
J).  137  ;  and  thou  the  Ottimo  Commenio,  p.  1'J9,  wliich  confuses  I'lio- 
tinus  witli  tlic  heterodox  bishop  of  the  fourtli  century.  So  also 
Francesco  da  I?uti,  Comme»to,  i.,  301.  Where  Graul  (Dante's  ILjlle, 
p.  110)  found  the  story  that  Anastasius  denied  the  divine  nature  of 
Christ,  I  do  not  know, 


ANASTASIUS  IT.  219 

It  was  Gratlan  therefore,  mainly,  who  fixed  the 
judgment  of  the  Middle  Ages  respecting  Anastasius. 
This  pope,  ^  he  says,  is  rejected  by  the  Church  of 
Rome.  So  says  also  the  anonymous  writer  of  Zwetl 
in  his  History  of  the  Popes.  "  The  Church  2  rejects 
''him  and  God  smote  him."  The  gloss  adds  that  two 
popes,  Gelasius  and  Ilormisdas,  excommunicated  him. 
The  fact  that  Gelasius  was  Anastasius'  pj'cdcccssor 
was  overlooked.  *  But  it  was  now  hereby  established, 
as  a  certain  fact,  that  Anastasius  was  an  heretical 
pope  ;  and  so  he  was  henceforth  usually  quoted  along 
with  Liberius  as  a  second  instance  of  papal  hereby. 
Since  Gratian's  time  theologians  were  accustomed  to 
appeal  to  the  chapter  "  Anastasius  "  in  the  Dccrctuvi 
and  to  the  gloss  on  it,  when  they  discussed  the 
question  of  heretical  error  in  a  pope,  and  of  the 
conduct  of  the  Church  in  such  circumstances.  The 
schoolman,  Alger*  of  Liege  (about  A.i").  11 50),  must 
certainly  have  had  other  sources  than  Gratian  before 
him  when  he  asserted  that  pope  Anastasius  was 
condemned  along  with  his  Decree,  because  in  it  he 

1  -'I'lco  ab  Ecclcsia  llomana  rcpnJiatnr." — Distine.,  19,  c.  8. 

2  Ap.  Pez,  Thesaur.  Ante  J.,  i.,  p.  3,  351. 

3  [Filix  II.,  A.D.  483         Symmachns,  A  D.  408 
Gelasius  I.  "     492         Hormisdas       "     514.] 
Anastasius  II.                   "     496. 

4  I.iber  de  Miseiicordiaet  Justitia,c.  G9.     In  Martene,  Tke*.  Ane:d., 
v.,  1127. 


220  AA^ASTASIUS  11. 

had  declared  that  the  baptisms  and  ordlnat.'ons 
pcnormcd  by  Ac  >cius  aft.T  the  sentence  which  had 
passed  on  him  at  Rome  were  vahd.  In  this  ^  he  con- 
tradicted the  decisions  of  his  predecessors.  Aljer 
h.crc  agrees  in  the  main  with  his  contemporary 
Gratian.  Gratian  has  quoted  the  declaration  of 
Anastasius, — accordinc^  to  which  the  cfHcacy  of  sacra- 
ments is  not  dependent  on  the  character  of  the 
dispenser,  and,  consequent!}',  even  the  sacraments 
administered  by  a  bishop  wlio  has  Lapsed  into  heresy 
arc  vaUd,  and  under  proper  conditions  efficacious, — as 
an  instance  of  a  false  decision  in  matters  of  faith 
given  by  a  pope,  respecting  wliich  the  Roman 
correctors  have  since  contradicted  him.  ^ 

On  tlic  other  liand,  William  of  Saint-Amour  (about 

2  Alucr  liiinsi'lf  does  not  mptin,  r.s  he  afterwards  oxpTains,  that 
till?  sacrain^'iits  admiiii.sl'Tcd  by  Aratius  were  fortliwilli  nidi  and 
void.  lie  distinj^iMslirs  tlnis  :  "  Qiiorl  vera,  qnamvis  non  rata  pos- 
"sint  esse  SH(  raimrda  ciijnslib't  niali  saccnlotis,  vol  li.vretioi,  ^el 
"  daniiiati.'" — c.  83  I'.ut  ho  famic-s  that  Anastasius  crroni.onsIy 
d'Tlart'd  tliat  the  sacrainents  adminisfiTcd  by  Acac  ins  wi're  '-rata." 
That  is  to  8av,  lie  siarts  from  th  ,•  prini  ipl  j  -whii  h  certain  short- 
pi;;  l)t<d  defnders  of  i)apal  snprcinaey  had  already  pnt  fordi,  that  a 
pope  wlio  beeami;  hereti'al,  immediately,  and  before  even  he  had  in 
any  way  made  known  bis  heretii  al  opinions,  ec.ased  to  bo  pope,  and 
li(  nee  all  tlijit  he  snbs'cpuntly  did  was  null  and  void.  In  \Nlneh 
case  tlif  CliMreh,  wliii  h  niviMtheless,  conld  not  possibly  do  otherwise 
tlian  reroj,Mii/,e  him  all  the  wliile,  wuiiiJ  liiid  iLself  in  unavoidablo 
crri.r. 

1   Decret.  distinc,  I'J,  o.  7,  8. 


ANASTASIUS  IT.  221 

A.D.  1245)  confuses  Anastasius  with  Liberius,  lie 
knows  nothing  more  than  that  in  the  time  of  Hilary,  a 
pope  lapsed  into  heresy,  of  whom  it  is  recorded  "  nutu 
divino  fuit  percussus  ;  "  and  he  conjectures  ^  that  this 
may  have  been  Anastasius  II.,  mentioned  by  Gratian. 
iMvaro  Pclayo,  who,  next  to  Augustine  of  Ancoha, 
furthered  the  aggrandisement  of  the  papal  power," 
wilh  the  greatest  zeal,  beyond  all  previous  bounds, 
and  almost  beyond  all  limits  whatever,  in  his  great 
work  on  the  condition  of  the  Church,  makes  mention 
of  the  judgment  ^  which  came  upon  Anastasius,  in 
order  to  prove  his  dictum,  that  a  heretical  pope 
m  I  >t  receive  a  far  heavier  sentence  than  any  other. 
Occnm,^  also,  makes  use  of  the  "heretical"  Ana.sta- 
siu3  as  an  instance  to  prove,  what  was  his  main  point, 
that  the  Church  erred  by  his  recognition.  The 
council  of  Basle  in  like  manner,  with  a  view  to 
establishing  the  necessary  supremacy  of  an  oecumen- 
ical council  over  the  pope,  did  not  fail  to  appeal  to  the 
fact,  that  popes  who  did  not  obey  the  Church  were 
treated  by  her  as  heathens  and  publicans,  as  one  reads 
of  Liberius  and  Anastasius.^ 

2  Opera.  r<l.  Cor<l"S.  CoTistnnli.T  (Paiisii';),  1C33,  p.  9G. 

3  "  Divino  jiulii  io  ihkiissus  fiiit,  mini  <hnn  assrllimt  intcstina 
•'cnii.^it" — lie  I  lunctu  Ecclesifr,  2,  10,  Vcnctiis,  15C0,  ii.,  38. 

4  Opus  AoHffinla  Die  um.,  Lugd.,  1495,  f.  124. 
1  111  Ilarduiii,  viii.,  1327. 


222  ANASTASIUS  IT. 

"  The  pope,"  says  Domenicus  del  Domenici,  bishop 
of  Torcello,  somewhat  later,  in  a  letter  addressed  to 
pope  Calixtus  III.  (1455-1458),  "the  pope  by  himself 
"  alone  is  not  an  infallible  rule  of  faith,  for  some  popes 
"have  erred  in  faith,  as,  for  example,  Liberius  and 
"Anastasius  II.,  and  the  latter  was  in  consequence 
."punished  by  God."  ^  After  him  the  Belgian  John 
le  Maire,  also,  says  (about  15 15),  Liberius  and 
Anastasius  are  the  two  popes  of  ancient  times,  who, 
subsequent  to  the  Donation  of  Constantine,  obtained 
an  infamous  reputation  in  the  Church  as  heretics.  ^ 

1  De  Cifdinalium  Legit.  Great  Tract.,  in  M.  A.  dc  Dominis,  Be 
Repnll.  Eccl ,  Londini,  1617,  i.,  7G7  ss. 

2  "  In  hajresin  prolapsus  est,  ct  roptitatiir  pro  scciindo  Papa  infjtmi 
"post  donationcm  Constantini." — Ue  Hchismalutn  et  Concil.  JJiJfer. 
Argentor,  16uy,  p.  Cy-i. 


VIII.  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS  i 


Whilst  Anastasius,  most  undeservedly,  was  counted 
as  a  heretic,  the  memory  of  Honorius,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  held  in  honour  ;  and  the  fact  that  a  general 
council  had  pronounced  an  anathema  on  this  pope  for 
holding  heterodox  opinions  and  countenancing  heresy, 
was  in  the  Middle  Ages  usually  ignored.  The  cir- 
cumstances were  as  follows  :  The  Monothelite  heresy 
was  a  dangerous  and  unhappy  attempt  to  reunite  the 
Monophysitcs  with  the  Church  by  means  of  a  very 
comprehensive  concession,  devised  and  introduced 
into  the  Church,  by  certain  Oriental  prelates,  who 
herein  had  probably  an  understanding  with  the 
emperor  Heraclius,  and  were  acting  in  accordance 
with  his  wishes.  The  point  of  difference  was  this  : 
the  council  of  Chalcedon  had  declared  that  the  two 
natures  in  Christ  are  united  without  any  confusion  or 
changing  of  one  into  the  other  ;  there  must,  therefore, 
be  also  a  duality  of  wills,  and  a  human  and  a  divine 
will  be  distinguished  in  Christ.     The  Monophysites, 

1  [On  this  case  see  a  translation  of  P.ishop  von  Hofelc's  essay  on 
Honorius,  witli  notes,  by  11.  U.  Smitli,  in  tlic  J'res't/terian  Quarterly 
aud  Princelon  Beview,  New  York,  April,  1872  ] 

223 


224  THE  CASE  OE  HONORIUS. 

on  their  side  consistent,  made  the  human  \\\\\  vanish 
in  the  presence  of  the  divine,  allowing  to  the  Logos 
alone  in  Christ  the  full  exercise  of  the  power  of 
volition.  The  IMonothclitcs,  who  had  formed  them- 
selves into  a  middle  party,  having  for  its  object  the 
reconciliation  of  the  Monophysites  with  the  Church, 
on  this  point  agreed  with  the  latter ;  and  thus  Cyrus, 
in  Alexandria,  brought  about  a  union  bctv/een  the 
followers  of  Severus  there  and  the  Catholics.  Scrgius, 
patriarch  of  Constantinople,  who  had  an  understanding 
with  Cyrus,  sought  and  obtained  the  assent  of  pope 
rionorius  against  the  opposition  raised  by  Sophronius. 
The  manner  in  which  the  pope  and  the  two  patriarchs 
of  Constantinople  and  Alexandria  held  essentially  the 
same  view,  was  this  :  Honorius  had  declared,  quite 
in  the  sense  of  the  other  two,  that  the  two  decisive 
texts,  in  which  the  human  and  created  will  is  most 
clearly  distinguished  from  and  opposed  to  the  divine 
will  of  the  Logos,  are  merely  an  "economy"  in 
Christ's  mode  of  speaking,  that  is  to  say,  an  accommo- 
dation to  be  taken  only  in  a  figurative  sense,  by  means 
of  which  Christ  merely  intended  to  exhort  us  to 
submit  our  own  wills  to  the  divine  will.  He  was 
compelled  therefore,  equally  with  the  Orientals,  to 
recognize  only  a  single  will  in  Christ,  the  divine  or 
thcandric,  that  is,  a  will  having  its  source  in  the  Logos, 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS.  225. 

and,  as  it  were,  merely  floivitig  through  the  human 
nature — a  will  in  which  merely  the  Logos  is  the 
willing  power  and  active  principle,  while  the  human 
nature  is  purely  passive  ;  so  that  its  power  of  volition 
is  either  non-existent,  or,  at  any  rate,  quiescent.  And 
this  he  said  in  so  many  words  :  "  We  recognise,"  he 
says,  conceding  the  point  to  Sergius,  but  expressing 
himself  with  more  decision  than  Sergius,  "we  recognise 
"  one  will  in  Christ."  And  thereupon  Honorius,  like 
the  Monothelites  of  the  East,  troubled  himself  with 
the  notion,  that  a  human  will,  as  belonging  to  man's 
sinful  nature,  must  always  strive  against  the  Divine ; 
whereas  the  idea  was  not  far  to  seek,  that  the  human 
will,  having  its  root  in  the  sinless  nature  of  Christ, 
conformed  to  the  divine  will,  so  that  a  moral  unity 
co-existed  with  an  actual  duality  of  will. 

On  the  other  hand,  Honorius,  taking  the  word 
"  energy"  (i.  e.  mode  of  operation),  which  had  been 
used  by  the  Greeks,  in  a  sense  altogether  different 
from  theirs,  gave  as  his  decision,  that  one  ought  not 
to  speak  cither  of  one  or  of  two  energies  ;  for  that 
Christ,  by  virtue  of  His  one  theandric  will,  showed 
many  modes  of  operation  and  activity.  Therefore 
there  is  unity  of  will,  says  Honorius,  for  it  is  the 
Person  that  wills,  and  not  the  natures,  and  there  is 
multiplicity  (not  unity,  nor  duality)  of  energies  or 


226  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

modes  of  operation.  In  this  way,  then,  Honorius 
would  have  the  controversy  put  down ;  viz.,  that  it 
was  preposterous  to  contest  about  one  or  two  energies 
in  Christ,  because  neither  the  one  nor  the  other 
expression  could  be  used  in  a  rational  sense.  At  the 
same  time,  however,  it  was  set  forth  that  all  men 
should  be  united  in  the  acceptance  of  a  single  power 
of  volition.  The  emperor  Constantine  stated  sub- 
sequently in  his  edict,  that  Honorius  had  not  only 
taught  a  false  doctrine,  but  also  contradicted  himself, 
merely  because  he,  being  .  used  to  the  oriental 
terminology,  did  not  understand  the  sense  in  which 
Honorius  used  the  v.'ord  "  energy."  Honorius  meant 
by  it,  manifestatio7is  of  activity  hi  the  Person,  which 
are  many  and  various.  But  the  emperor  understood 
by  it,  modes  of  operation  in  the  natures,  of  which  there 
must  be  two,  or  (according  to  the  Monothclites)  on 
account  of  the  unity  of  will,  only  one. 

This  doctrine  of  Honorius,  so  welcome  to  Sergius 
and  the  remaining  favourers  and  supporters  of 
Monothelitism,  }ed  to  the  two  imperial  edicts,  the 
Ecthesis  and  Typiis.  It  led  to  them  to  this  extent, 
that  Heraclius  was  thereby  justified  in  concluding 
that  the  Roman  See  would  not  oppose  such  a 
doctrinal  decree  as  the  Ecthesis  ;  and  the  Typus  of 
Constans  was  nothing  more  than  a  weaker  echo  of 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS.  227 

the  Ecthesis.  The  result,  however,  was  different 
from  what  had  been  hoped  at  Constantinople.  The 
whole  East  rose  up  in  arms  against  the  new  doctrine, 
and  it  forthwith  became  evident  that  Honorius,  with 
his  mode  of  understanding  the  question,  stood  alone 
in  Rome  and  in  the  West.  For  some  time  efforts 
were  made  to  excuse  Honorius.  Pope  John  IV. 
(a.d.  640-642)  stated  in  his  ^  apology  that  his 
predecessor  had  merely  rejected  the  fond  notion  of 
two  mutually  opposing  wills  ;  as  if,  that  is  to  say, 
Christ  had  a  will  tainted  with  sin.  No  doubt  the  fear, 
that  in  admitting  the  double  will  one  would  be  irre- 
sistibly driven  on  to  accept  two  mutually  opposing 
wills,  was  a  very  considerable  element  in  the 
declaration  of  Honorius ;  only  it  remains  a  riddle 
how  a  man,  who  certainly  had  no  Monophysitc 
tendencies,  could  allow  himself  to  be  influenced 
by  so  unfounded  an  apprehension.  The  excuse 
which  Maximus,  appealing  to  the  statement  of  the 
papal  secretary,  brings  forward  for  Honorius  is  still 
more  forced  and  untenable.      Honorius,  he  says,  only 

1  Mnnsi,  x.,  683.  [Sovorinus,  the  immediate  successor  of  Honorius, 
had  a  briof  pontificate  of  only  three  months ;  and  appears  to  have 
rejected  the  Kctlicsis.  Jolin  IV.  did  so  in  soh-nin  council. 
IlLiacIius  thiTeupon  wrote  to  the  pope  to  disown  tlie  document, 
saying  that  he  had  only  pulilishcd  it  at  the  urgent  request  of 
Sergius. — liobertson,  Church  History,  ii.,  45.] 


228  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

wished  to  guard  against  the  supposition  of  two 
human  and  mutually  ^  opposed  wills.  Manifestly  the 
pope  had  never  thought  of  any  such  absurdity. 
Rather  his  decision  and  the  cause  of  his  error  may  be 
briefly  expressed  thus :  One  Wilier,  therefore .  one 
will ;  for  the  will  is  the  attribute  of  the  Person,  not  of 
the  natures. 

Honorius  had  written  again  to  Sergius  to  the  same 
effect,  as  well  as  to  Cyrus  and  Sophronius,  and  hence 
it  was  quite  natural  that  he  should  come  to  be 
regarded  as  one  of  the  supporters  of  iMonothclitisiri. 
The  patriarch  Pyrrhus,  successor  of  Sergius  at  Con- 
stantinople, had  accordingly  appealed  to  him  and, 
at  the  Lateran  synod  in  the  year  649,  the  writings  of 
the  Monothelites,  which  claimed  for  themselves  the 
authority  of  Ilonorius,  were  publicly  read.  No  one 
there  spoke  a  word  in  defence  of  Honorius.  Complete 
silence  was  observed  respecting  him,  although  the 
five  prelates  who  were  accounted  the  originators  and 
main  supporters  of  the  false  doctrine — Tiieodore  of 
Pharan,  Cyrus  of  Alexandria,  Sergius,  Pyrrhus  and 
Paul,  patriarchs  of  Constantinople — were  condemned 
by  pope  Martin  and  the  synod. 

At  last  came  the  decisive  council  of  A.D.  680.  And 
here  took  place  what  preceding  events    would    lead 

1   Mansi,  x.,  687,  GDI,  7.39. 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS.  229 

one  to  expect.  Ilonorlus,  as  partaker  in  the 
Monothclite  heresy,  was  treated  in  the  same  way  as 
the  other  prelates  who  had  already  been  condemned 
at  Rome,  along  with  them  was  placed  under 
anathema,  and  the  council  insisted  upon  cursing 
"  the  heretic  I  lonorius"  by  name.  He  joined  himself, 
it  is  stated  in  the  decree,  in  all  particulars  to  Sergius; 
he  spread  the  heresy  of  the  one  will  abroad  among 
the  people  ;  he  deserved  to  be  placed  under  the  same 
anathema  as  Sergius,  for  his  dogmatic  writings  were 
completely  opposed  to  the  doctrine  of  the  apostles 
and  decisions  of  councils,  tending  towards  the  same 
godlessness  as  the  writings  of  the  most  pro- 
nounced Monothclites,  The  emperor  Constantino 
[IV.,  Pogonatus]  in-  particular,  who  had  taken  a  ^ 
very  active  part  at  the  council,  expressed  himself  to 
this  effect  in  the  letter  which  he  wrote  to  the  pope. 
And  in  the  edict  which  was  affixed  to  the  great 
church  of  the  caj)ital,  it  was  said  of  I  lonorius  that  in 
all  points  he  was-  to  be  treated  like  Sergius  and 
Theodore,    as    "  the    companion    and    associate    of 

1  [There  were  cifrhtecn  sessions,  la'^ting  from  Nov.  7th,  G80,  to 
Sojit.  IGth,  G81.  The  emperor  presided  in  i>i.tsou  at  the  fijst  eleven 
Bessioiis,  and  nt  the  ei^liteenth.  In  his  ahsenee  tin;  president's  cii.iir 
■was  kit  empty.  The  number  of  bi-shops  inernisid  Kradiiany  to 
nearly  two  iiuiidrc^d.] 

2  .Man.-ii,  xi.  607-712.  ["Qui  fait  cnm  eis  in  omnibus  colircretieufl 
"  et  coneurnns  ct  confirmator  hajresis.'" — llarduiu,  iii ,  1638.] 


230  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

"  heretics  and  the  sanctioner  of  heresy."  The 
council^  itself,  after  subjecting  the  writings  of  Sergius 
and  Honorius  to  a  careful  investigation,  declared 
respecting  the  two  men,  "  whose  godless  doctrine  we 
"  abominate,"  that  "we  deem  it  necessary  to  cast  their 
**  names  out  of  the  Church." 

That  it  was  the  intention  of  the  council  to  condemn 
Honorius  for  actual  heresy,  and  not  merely  for 
weakness  or  negligence  or  imprudence  in  his  mode  of 
contending  against  heresy,  there  cannot  be  any  doubt. 
And  yet  it  is  certain  that  he  ^  was  not  heretical  in  the 

1  ["  Duas  igitur  in  eo  naturalcs  voluntatcs  (ipvaiKO.  de^r/finra),  ct 
"  duas  naturales  operationes  (6vaiKac  hspyeia^,  commnniter  atque 
"  indivise  procedentes  prtedicamus  ;  supcrfluas  autcm  vocum  novi- 
"  tatcs,  et  harum  adinvcntores  procul  ab  ecclesiasticis  soptis  abjici- 
"  mus,  ct  anathemati  merito  subjicimns ;  id  est,  Theodorum  Pharani- 
"  tanum,  Scrgium  et  Paulum,  Pyrrhura  simul  et  Potrum,  qui  Con- 
"  stantinopoleos  pr;esulatuin  tcnuerunt,  insuper  et  Cyrum,  qui 
"  Alexandrinorum  sacerdotiura  gessit,  et  cum  cis  Honoriura,  qui 
"  fuit  Romae  praesul,  utpote  qui  cos  in  his  sccutus  est." — Labbe, 
Cone  I.,  vi.,  1053;  Harduin,  Concil ,  iii.,  1422.] 

2  [Sec  on  this  point  the  essay  of  Bishop  of  von  Hefolo,  referred 
to  above.  He  shows  that  Honorius  taught  heretical  doctrine.  Ho 
says,  that  "  Honorius  confounded  the  energy,  or  mode  of  working  in 
itself,  with  its  single  manifestations. 

"His  words,  bearing  on  this,  read  literally:  'It  is  not  right  to 
give  the  authority  of  ecclesiastical  dogmas  to  opinions  which  do  not 
seem  to  have  been  submitted  to  the  examination  of  Synods,  nor  to 
have  the  authority  of  ecclesiastical  canons  ;  as  is  the  case  with  those 
who  presume  to  predicate  one  energy  or  iw)  energies  of  Christ,  etc' 
(^JUansi,  Collect.  Concil.  T.  xi.  p.  542.) 

"  And  afterwards  he  says :  '  For  we  have  not  learned  from  the 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS.  231 

strict  sense  of  the  term  ;  though  assuredly  it  is 
equally  clear  that  Cyrus,  Scrgius,  Pyfrhus,  and  Paul 
were  neither  more  heretical  than  Honorius,  nor  less 
so.  The  question  at  issue  was  one  which  had  not 
been  raised  or  discussed  before,  it  then  for  the  first 
time  occupied  men's  minds ;  a  question  in  which  the 
danger  of  falling  into  one  of  two  opposite  errors  — 
Nestorianism  or  Monophysitism — was  very  imminent. 
In  such  cases  a  certain  amount  of  time  and  of  contro- 
versy is  always  needed,  in  order  that  the  con- 
sciousness of  the  Church  may  find  its  bearings  and 

Holy  Scriptures  that  Jesus  Christ  and  hIsTToly  Spirit  have  one  mode 
of  operation,  or  two,  although  we  have  Icarucd  that  Ho  worked  in 
manifold  ways.'     (Mansi,  ubi  suprH.) 

"  And  at  the  close :  '  Tiiis,  my  brother,  yon  will  also  preach  as 
we  do  .  .  .  and  we  exhort  yon,  that,  avoiding  the  new  mode  of 
operation,  you  proclaim  with  us  one  Lord  Jesus  Christ.'  (J/anj/,  p. 
543.) 

"Ilonorins  here  not  only  rejects  the  ortKnrhx  technical  term  of  two 
enrrgies,  but  at  the  same  time  prescribes  a  heretical  phrase  as  a  rule 
of  faith  when  he  says  :  '  On  this  account  we  too  confess  one  will 
("i'  (rj'/Jhin)  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  since  our  nature  but  not  our 
guilt  was  manifestly  assumed  by  the  divinity  ;  and  this  nature,  too, 
as  it  was  created  before  sin  and  not  as  it  was  vitiated  by  the  fall. 
That  is,  the  corrupted  nature  was  not  assumed  by  the  Saviour,  for 
this  would  be  repugnant  to  the  law  of  the  Spirit.'     (Mansi,   p.  539.) 

"  The  result  is  that  Honorius  (a.)  rejected  the  technical  orthodox 
term  of  ttco  energies  (>h-o  ivepyetai)  ;  (b  )  and  declared  the  specific 
heretical  term,  one  wi  I  (i:i>  Pflrjnn)  to  be  correct ;  and  (c.)  prescribed 
this  two-fold  error  as  an  article  of  faith,  in  tliis  instance  to  the 
Church  of  Coubtautiuople."  I'retb.  Quarterly,  April,  1872,  p.  284, 
H.  B.  S.J 


232  THE  CASE  OF  HO  NO  RI  US. 

define  itself.  In  the  primitive  Church  the  erroneous 
enunciations  of  individual  bishops  on  questions  which 
had  not  yet  been  decided  and  formulated  by  the 
Church  were  treated  with  gentleness  and  forbearance, 
especially  if  such  men  had  died  in  communion  and 
peace  with  the  Church.  But  after  the  fifth  great 
council  at  Constantinople  (a.d.  553)  had  set  the 
example  in  anathematising  Theodore  of  Mopsucstia, 
— not  merely  his  writings,  but  himself, — and  the 
popes  after  some  opposition  had  accepted  this,  and 
at  last  carried  into  effect  through  the  whole  West,  the 
case  was  altogether  altered.  In  the  synod  of  649 
(First  Lateran),  five  prelates  had  been  condemned 
in  Rome  as  Monothclites,  among  them  three  who 
were  already  dead.  One  of  these  was  the  patriarch 
of  Constantinople,  Paul  II.,  who  had  written  to  pope 
Theodore  to  say  that  he  followed  the  doctrine  of 
Ilonorius,  and  who  had  thereupon  accepted  the 
Typiis  of  the  emperor  Constans.  The  Typus,  however, 
did  not  go  so  far  as  the  letter  of  Ilonorius ;  for  while 
this  declared  expressly  for  the  doctrine  of  one  will, 
the  Typus  merely  commanded  silence  about  the 
whole  question.  It  was  only  natural  and  human 
that  the  Orientals  assembled  at  the  sixth  council 
would  not  allow  the  reproach  and  disgrace  oi  heresy 
to    fall    exclusively    on    the    heads    of    their    own 


.n\  '■ 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS.  233 

patriarchs,  but  seized  the  opportunity,  not  altogether 
unwiUingly,  of  making  the  patriarch  of  Old  Rome,  as 
he  was  then  called,  appear  for  once  among  the  guilty. 
And  the  papal  legates,  who  had  just  before  made  a 
protest  respecting  a  charge  of  false  teaching  brought 
against  pope  Vigilius,  could  make  neither  formal  nor 
material  objection  to  the  perfectly  regular  course 
taken  in  the  case  of  Ilonorius  ;  they  were  therefore 
obliged  to  join  in  voting  for  his  condemnation.  For 
even  the  inflexible  Monothelites  at  the  council, 
r.Iacarius,  patriarch  of  Antioch,  the  monk  Stephen, 
and  the  two  bishops  of  Nicomedia  and  Klaneus,  had 
just  before  declared  that  they  had  promulgated  no 
innovation,  but  merely  the  doctrine  which  they  had 
learnt  from  Ilonorius  and  the  patriarchs.  The 
assembled  Fathers  had  no  alternative,  but  cither  to 
excuse  all  the  six  deceased  originators  and  favourers 
of  ivlonothelitism,  or  to  condemn  them  all.  The 
Lateran  council  had  rendered  the  first  course  im- 
possible ;  and  the  Roman  legates  would  probably 
have  protested  against  a  decision  which  would  have 
compelled  the  Western  Church  to  make  a  sentence 
pronounced  by  itself  in  a  large  synod,  of  no  cflect. 
Hence  the  second  course  was  all  that  remained. 

The  reception  which  the  decree  would  meet  with 
in  old  Rome  might  well  be  watched  with  anxiety  in 


234  THE  CASE  OF  HONORTUS. 

the  new  imperial  city.  A  new  and  hitherto  unheard 
of  event  had  taken  place.  A  pope  had  been  con- 
demned as  heretical  by  an  oecumenical  council,  and 
the  Romans  were  required  to  strike  out  his  name, 
which  no  one  hitherto  had  thought  of  aspersing, 
from  the  intercessions  of  the  Church.  Pope  Agatho 
had  made  an  attempt  to  avert  the  threatening  blow. 
Without  mentioning  his  predecessor,  he  had  in  his 
letter  given  utterance  to  the  general  assurance,  that 
the  Roman  See  had  never  swerved  from  the  path  of 
apostolic  tradition,  never  allowed  itself  to  be  tainted 
with  heretical  innovations.  The  council  answered 
this  with  the  counter-statement,  that  they  had  passed 
judgment  upon  the  condemned  theologians,  Ilonorius 
-included,  in  accordance  with  the  sentence  originally 
pronounced  by  Agatho.  It  was,  however,  precisely 
Ilonorius  who  had  been  passed  over  by  Agatho  in 
his  letter. 

Agatho  meanwhile  had  died  at  Rome  ;  ^  and  the 
task  of  speaking  out  respecting  the  condemnation  of 
Ilonorius  fell  on  his  successor,  Leo  II.,  who  had 
translated  the  acts  of  the  council  from  the  Greek. 
Leo  saw  that  both  prudence  and  justice  required  him 
to  recognise  the  judgment  of  the  council,  that  an 
attempt  still  to  draw  a  distinction  between  Ilonorius 

1  [January,  CC2,  while  his  legates  were  still  at  Constautiuoplc.J 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS.  235 

and  the  Oriental  bishops  had  no  longer  any  prospect 
of  success.  lie  therefore  sent  an  acknowledgment  to 
the  emperor,  containing  an  express  condemnation  of 
Honorius,  because,  ^  "  instead  of  enlightening  the 
"  Roman  Church  with  apostolic  doctrine,  he  had 
"  surrendered  its  primitive  spotlessness  to  be  defiled 
"  by  an  impious  betrayal  of  the  faith  (profana  per- 
"  fidia)."  This  was  going  almost  beyond  what  was 
warranted  by  historical  fact.  Honorius,  as  it  hap- 
pened, was  the  only  person  in  Rome  who  cherished 
the  doctrine  laid  down  in  his  letter  ;  nothing  is  known 
of  any  other  convert  which  the  Monothelite  doctrine 
had  made  in  Rome.  However,  in  his  letter  to  the 
Spanish  bishops  and  king  Erwig,  Leo  noticed  the 
transgression  of  his  predecessor  in  less  strong  ex- 
pressions. According  to  this,  *  Honorius  had  merely 
allowed  the  pure  doctrine  to  be  falsified  or  tainted 
with  error.     He  had  merely  been  wanting  in  watch- 

1  ["  Nccnon  Honorinm,  qni  hanc  apostolicam  ccclesJam  non  npos- 
"  tolicre  tntditionis  doctrina  lustravit,  scd  profana  proditione  iiiima- 
"  culatam  fidcm  eubvertcre  conatua  est." — Ilarduin,  Concil.,  iii., 
1475.] 

2  ["Ctim  Ilonorio,  qui  flammam  hnerctlci  doprmatis  non,  ut  dccnit 
"  apostolicam  aiictoritatcm,  incipicutom  cxtinxit,  scd  ncgligendo 
"  confovit." — Epis'ola  ad  E^itcop'^M  Jlispaniie.  "  Et  una  cum  cis 
"  Honorius  Romauus,  qui  immaculatara  a|>ostolica5  trnditionis  ro- 
"  gulani  quam  a  pra-decessoribus  suis  susccpit,  maculaii  consciitit." 
'—KpisLola  ad  Erdjium  Uegem  Unpun  x,  Ap.  Uurduin,  ConaL,  iii., 
1730,  1735.J 


236  THE  CASE  OF  HONORWS. 

fulness  and  foresirjlit.  In  this,  however,  he  alto,::^etIicr 
contradicted  the  declaration  of  Agatho,  that  all  popes 
had  done  their  duty  with  regard  to  false  doctrine. 

It  was  natural  that  the  circumstance  should  bo 
looked  upon  in  Rome  as  a  mortifying  humiliation  in 
their  relation  to  the  Byzantines.  Nevertheless,  afLer 
the  decision  of  the  council,  no  further  attempt  was 
made  to  withdraw  the  fact  from  notice,  even  in  tlie 
West,  On  the  contrary,  as  if  it  was  desired  to  give 
it  the  greatest  possible  publicity,  it  was  inserted  in 
the  confession  of  faith  which  every  ncwly-elected 
pope  had  to  sign.  Thus  it  is  found  in  the  Liber 
Diuj-nus,  1  the  ofhcial  book  of  formulas  of  the  Roman 
Church  at  that  time,  intended  for  tlie  use  of  the  papal 
curia.  The  sixth  oecumenical  council,  at  which  pope 
Agatho  presided  in  the  person  of  his  legates,  is  here 
noticed  with  explicitness  of  detail.  Then  follows, 
after  an  exposition  of  the  doctrine  of  two  v/ills,  the 
condemnation  of  those  who  opposed  the  doctrine. 
Sergius,  Pyrrhus,  Paul,  and  Peter,  the  four  patriarclis 
of  Constantinople,  together  with  Ilonorius,  wiio 
assented  to  and  promoted  (fomentum  impcndit)  their 
false  doctrine,  arc  anathematised  together  with 
Theodore  and  Cyrus, 

All  the  more  astonishing  is  it  that  the  other  official 

1  Ed.  Gariicrii,  Paris,  1C30,  p.  41. 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS.  237 

work  of  tlic  Roman  Church  at  that  time,  the  Pontifical 
book,  ma-ntahis  an  unmistakcable  silence  with  anxious 
care  respecting  all  tliat  concerns  the  part  taken  by 
Ilonorius  in  the  MonotheHte  controversy  and  his 
condenination.  And  yet  in  other  respects  it  contains 
good  and  contemporary  accounts  of  this  period.  First 
under  the  popes  Theodore  and  Martin,  the  ap- 
pearance of  Pyrrhus  in  Rome,  the  dispute  with  Paul 
about  the  Typus,  the  Lateran  council  of  A.D.  649,  and 
the  tragical  end  of  pope  Martin,  are  all  noticed.  The 
biographer  of  Agatho  in  this  collection  evidently  had 
the  diary  before  him,  which  was  kept  by  the  papal 
legates  sent  to  the  council  of  A.D.  680.  These  legates, 
among  whom  ^  were  three  bishops,  relate  that  it  was 
they  themselves  who  had  challenged  the  Monothelitcs 
at  the  council  to  produce  the  authority  of  the 
Apostolic  See,  to  which  they  appealed.  ^  Thereupon 
the  delighted  Monothelitcs  laid  before  the  council  the 
letter  of  pope  Vigilius  to  Mennas.  Investigation, 
however,  showed  that  the  passage  in  point  had  been 
interpolated.  There  is  not  a  word  about  the  fact  that 
the  Monothelitcs  had  above  all  appealed  to  Ilonorius, 
that  the  two  letters  of  Ilonorius,  both  in  Latin  and 

1  fAbiindantiiis,  bi.rhop  of  Pat>rniMin),  .Tdlm,  I'islmp  of  Porttis, 
John,  Disliop  of  Uliogiiiin,  topcth'T  with  tho  siih-di-ncon  Constiinlinc, 
tho  pr<  sbytors  Thiodoro  an<i  (ingory,  arul  tlic  deacon  Jolm.J 

2  LibcT  ronlijlcalis,  i ,  27y,  ed.  Viguoli. 


238  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

Greek,  had  been  laid  before  the  council,  examined, 
and  rejected  as  heretical.  Either  the  legates  sup- 
pressed all  this,  because  they  had  received  very 
different  instructions  from  Agatho,  which  they  found 
it  impossible  to  follow  at  the  council,  or  the  compiler 
of  this  portion  of  the  Pontifical  book,  in  copying  their 
diary,  has  omitted  all  that  relates  to  Ilonorius. 
Seeing  that  the  legates  produced  the  acts  of  the 
council,  and  the  canons  which  they  themselves  had 
signed,  including  the  condemnation  of  Ilonorius,  one 
would  rather  suppose  that  the  latter  alternative  was 
the  fact ;  the  more  so  inasmuch  as  the  compilation, 
or  at  any  rate  the  last  revision  of  this  part  of 
the  Pontifical  book,  was  probably  conducted  by 
Anastasius  the  librarian,  who  two  hundred  years 
after  the  event,  in  his  letter  to  the  Roman  deacon 
John,  took  great  pains  to  try  and  excuse  Ilonorius. 
The  contents  of  Honorius'  letter  he  did  not  venture 
to  justify,  as  later  apologists  ^  of  this  pope  have  done; 
but,  he  adds,  we  cannot  be  certain  that  the  secretary 
did  not  possibly  misunderstand  the  pope's  dictation, 
or  arbitrarily  alter  the  words  out  of  malevolence  or 
caprice.     He    bethinks    himself,    however,    that    this 

1  [For  example,  the  archbishops  of  Westminster  and  Baltimore  in 
their  recent  pastoral  letters.  The  archbishop  of  Malines  also  in  his 
controversy  with  Pere  Gratry.     See  Appendix  F.J 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS.  239 

secretary  was  a  very  holy  man,  the  abbot  John  ;  and 
now  he  directs  his  indignation  against  the  sixth 
council  itself,  which,  contrary  to  the  command  of 
scripture,  had  condemned  a  man  who  was  voiceless 
and  defenceless  in  his  grave  ; — quite  forgetting  that 
the  Roman  synod  of  a.d.  649  had  done  precisely  the 
same  in  the  case  of  five  prelates.  The  dogmatic 
decisions  of  the  council  were  no  doubt  binding  as 
a  rule  of  faith ;  but  just  as  the  Roman  See  had 
rejected  the  twenty-eighth  canon  of  the  council  of 
Chalcedon  without  detriment  to  the  dogmatic 
authority  of  that  assembly,  so,  he  thinks,  it  is  possible 
to  reject  also  the  sentence  pronounced  on  Honorius. 
Did  Anastasius  not  know  what  Leo  II.  had  done, 
what  stood  written  in  the  pope's  confession  of  faith  ? 
The  only  thing  in  point  which  he  produces  is  the 
remark,  that  no  doubt  the  council  condemned 
Honorius  as  a  heretic,  but  that,  properly  speaking,  no 
one  could  be  called  a  heretic  who  did  not  add  to  his 
error  contentious  obstinacy  (contcntiosa  pcrtinacia). 

The  silence  in  the  biography  of  Agatho  has 
nevertheless  not  prevented  the  biographer  of  Leo  II., 
in  the  very  same  Pontifical  book,  from  citing  the 
name  of  Honorius  under  the  head  of  those  who 
were  condemned  by  the  sixth  council  as  Monothelites; 
and  as  the  lessons  for  St.  Leo's  day  were  taken  word 


240  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

for  word  from  this  biography,  the  condemnation  of 
Ilonorius  has  been  transferred  to  the  older  versions 
of  the  Roman  breviary,  np  doubt  without  the  follow- 
ing- point  being  observed. 

In  the  East  it  was  natural  frequently  to  recur  to 
the  condemnation  of  Ilonorius,  without,  however, 
exactly  calling  attention  to  it  as  anything  extra- 
ordinary and  astonishing.  The  patriarchs  Tarasius  of 
Constantinople,  and  Theodore  of  Jerusalem,  men- 
tioned him  at  the  time  of  the  seventh  council  ^ 
(A.D.  J'^'j)  under  the  head  of  those  who  were 
condemned  for  Monothelitism  ;  so  also  the  deacon 
Epiphanius.  ^  It  occurred  to  no  one  to  make  a 
difference  between  him  and  the  other  Monothelitc 
leaders  who  were  condemned  for  heresy.  Pope 
Hadrian  II.  specially  remarked  in  the  letter  of  his 
which  appended  to  the  acts  of  the  eighth  council,  that 
Ilonorius  was  accused  and  condemned  on  account  of 
heresy ;  and  moreover,  that  his  condemnation  had 
taken  place  only  in  consequence  of  the  Roman  Sec 
having  given  its  assent.  ^ 

It  is  Ilincmar  of  Rheims  who  mentions  the  affair  of 
Ilonorius  for  the  last   time  in  the  West,   adding  the 

1  [Of  NicT.-i,  whi'jh  anatlimriatlsofl  the  Iconoclasts,  and  rOHtor>:d 
imai^'.'-woi^hip  ) 

2  Conn/i',  .d.  LaMi-,  vii.,  ]C,(],  182,  422 

3  Sue  Garuiur's  note  to  the  Liber  Diuniu  ,  p.  41. 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS.  241 

remark,  that  he  must  have  deserved  anathema  in  his 
life,  otherwise  those  who  sat  in  judgment  upon  him 
would  have  harmed  themselves  rather  than  ^  him. 
After  him  the  recollection  of  the  circumstance 
perished  in  the  western  churches.  Of  course,  in  the 
notices  of  the  sixth  council,  as  they  existed  in  this  or 
that  chronicle,  and  in  the  Roman  breviary,  the  name 
of  Honorius,  without  further  explanation,  was  still 
read  along  with  the  rest  who  had  been  condemned 
by  this  council.  But  seeing  that  all  these  others  were 
Orientals,  that  the  Monothelite  controversy  had  left 
no  traces  behind  it  in  the  West,  and  that  none  of  the 
historical  works  in  general  use  in  the  Middle  Ages 
contained  any  particulars  of  the  Alonothclitc  question, 
it  no  longer  occurred  to  any  one  that  the  Honorius 
thus  expelled  from  communion  with  the  Church  was 
the  pope.  Beyond  everything  else  the  silence  of  the 
Pontifical  book  decided  the  point  in  this  direction. 
Hence  it  came  to  pass  that  not  one  of  the  numerous 
compilers  of  histories  and  lists  of  popes  gave  even  the 
slightest  hint  of  so  remarkable  a  circumstance,  one 
quite  unique  in  its  kind.  The  pseudo-Luitprand, 
Abbo,  Martinus  Polonus,  Leo  of  Orvieto,  Bernard 
Guidonis,  Gervasius  Riccobald  of  Ferrara,  Amalrich 

1  In  the  treatise  Dt  una  et  non  irina  Deitate^  cf.  Chmcl    Vindicivz 

Coticil,  vi.,  Prague,  1777,  p.  137. 
21 


242  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

Augerii — all  these  writers  of  histories  of  the  popes 
are  silent.  They  sometimes  relate  about  him  some 
unimportant  things,  such  as  small  liturgical  directions; 
they  mention  that  Leo  II.,  understanding  Greek, 
translated  the  Acts  of  the  sixth  council  into  Latin. 
But  an  event,  which  in  Rome  itself  appeared  so 
important  that  it  had  been  expressly  included  in  the 
pope's  confession  of  faith,  they  one  and  all  leave 
unmentioned,  not  perhaps  of  set  purpose — only  of 
the  compiler  of  the  Pontifical  book  can  it  be  said  that 
he  purposely  suppressed  the  proceeding — but  openly, 
because  they  knew  nothing  whatever  about  it, 
although  three  oecumenical  councils,  the  sixth,  the 
seventh,  and  the  eighth,  had  pronounced  or  confirmed 
the  sentence  of  anathema  on  Honorius. 

And  this  was  universally  the  case  with  the  Latin 
writers  from  the  tenth  to  the  fifteenth  century.  True 
that  the  chronicle  of  Eccard,^  that  Ado  and  Marianus 
Scotus  mention  Honorius  among  those  who  were 
condemned  by  the  sixth  council,  but  this  name  without 
any  further  description  was,  for  those  times,  mere 
empty  sound,  conveying  no  ideas  to  any  one.  When, 
therefore.  Cardinal  Humbert,  in  his  writing  against 
the   Greek   Nicetas,^    inserts    a    notice   of  the   sixth 

1  In  rcitz,  viii.,  IXivt. 

2  In  Baron  ,  Append,  ad  torn,  xi.;  .4nnai.,p.  1005,  cd.  Colon. 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS,  2^3 

council,  and  in  this  mentions  Honorius  also  as  one  of 
tliose  condemned,  \vc  may  be  certain  that  he  had  no 
suspicion  of  the  rank  of  the  person  mentioned  ;  other- 
wise the  Byzantines  would  have  been  precisely  the 
people  in  whose  minds  he  would  have  avoided 
awakening  such  a  recollection.  The  oblivion  in.o 
which  the  fate  of  Honorius  had  fallen  is  specially 
astonishing  in  the  letter  of  Pope  Leo  IX.  to  Michael 
Cerularius,  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  and  to  Leo  ^ 
of  Achrida,  in  which  all  the  scandals  and  heretical 
errors  of  their  Church  and  its  bishops  are  set  before 
these  prelates.     The  pope  confidently  contrasts  the 

1  Hardnin,  iii.,  9?1.  [Michael  Ceru'avlus  and  Leo,  arclibisliop  of 
Achrida  and  mctr<>|HiIitan  of  P.ilgitria,  provoked  the  coir  ti|M  lukiico 
in  1053,  by  a  letter  to  the  bishop  of  Tiani,  in  Apulia,  warning  i,  m 
a^inst  the  errors  of  the  Latins.  The  pope  replied  from  his  virlnnl 
captivity  at  Djnevonto.  After  quoting  t!ic  text,  "  Ego  autcin  rogavi 
"pro  te,  ut  non  dcfiint  fides  tuaj  et  tu  aliqnandoconversusconfiin-.a 
*' fratrcs  tuos,"  the  pope  proceeds:  "  Erit  ergo  qiiisquani  tan(« 
"  dementisp.  qui  orationcm  iliius,  ctiius  velle  est  posse,  audi  at  in 
•'aliquo  vacuara  putare  ?  Nunne  a  scde  principis  Apostoloruui 
*'  Romana  videlicet  ecclcsia,  tain  per  eunniem  Petrum  quam  sucecs- 
"  sores  8UOS,  reprobata  ct  convicta,  atqii2  expugnata  sunt  omnium 
" hjcrcticorum  commcnta;  ct  fratrum  corda  in  fide  Petri,  quaa 
"■  hactenus  nee  defecit,  nee  usque  in  finem  defieiet  confirmata? 

"Pr.xterimusnominatim  rcplieare  nonaginta  et  eo  ampliush.Troscs 
"  ab  Orientis  partibus,  vel  ab  ipsis  Gra'tis,  diverso  tem|K)re  ex  divt  rso 
"  errore  ad  corrumpendam  virginitatem  catholicjc  ecclesi;e  miitris 
"emergentes.  Dieendum  vidctur  ex  parte,  quantas  Conbtantiun- 
"politana  ecclesia  per  pn»;sules  suos  suscitaverit  pestes;  quas 
"viriliter  expugnavit,  protiivit,  et  suffocavit  Romana  et  Aposloliea 
♦«6edes."J 


244  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

steadfast  orthodoxy  of  the  bishops  of  Rome  with  the 
numerous  cases  of  heresy  v/hich  had  occurred  in 
Constantinople,  and  calls  attention  to  the  way  in 
which  the  popes,  especially  in  the  Monothehte  con- 
troversies, had  continually  exercised  their  judicial 
office  over  the  patriarchs  of  Constantinople,  and  had 
condemned  them  ;  evidently  not  Having  the  slightest 
suspicion  that  Michael  and  Leo,  by  quoting  the  con- 
demnation of  Honorius,  pronounced  at  Constantinople 
and  accepted  at  Rome,  could  ha\e  demolished  his 
whole  argument.  On  the  contrary,  deceived  by  the 
Roman  apocryphal  documents,  he  represents  to  his 
opponents  that  Sylvester  had  decided  that  the  First 
See  (that  is  the  Roman)  can  be  judged  by  none,  and 
that  Constantino,  together  with  the  whole  council  of 
Nicsea,  had  approved  this.^ 

Again,  Anselm  of  Lucca  would  not  have  main- 
tained with  such  confidence  that  at  the  eight  oecumen- 
ical councils  which  had  been  held  up  to  that  time,  it 
had  been  proved  that  the  patriarch  of  Rome  was  the 
only  one  whose  faith  had  never  wavered,  if  he  had 
known  that  it  was  precisely  at  the  last  three  of  these 

1  ["  Illi  nempe  facitis  prasjiidicium,  de  qua  ncc  voLis,  nee  cnilibct 
"moiluliuin  licet  facere  jiiditiuin  ;  beatis.simo  et  Ai)()stolico  Ponti- 
"  fice  Silvustro  diviiiitus  docernente,  spiritiialique  ejus  filio  Constan- 
"  lino  religiosiissinio  Aufrusto  cum  universa synodo  Nicajnaapprobuuto 
"  ac  subbcribeatc,  ut  summu  aedea  a  nemine  Judicelur."] 


THE  CASE  OF  IIONORIUS.  245 

ei^lit  synods  that  ITonorius  had  been  condemned  for 
heresy.  ^  In  like  manner,  Rupert  of  Deutz  would  not, 
as  he  has  done,  have  contrasted  the  steadfast  ortho- 
doxy of  the  popes  with  the  heretical  aberrations  of 
the  patriarchs  of  Constantinople,  if  he  had  not  shared 
the  general  ignorance  respecting  the  sixth  council.  2 

Accordingly,  in 'the  West,  as  often  as  cases  had  to 
be  quoted  in  which  popes  had  erred  or  become 
heretical,  people  appealed  to  those  of  Liberius  and 
Anastasius,  sometimes  also  to  that  of  Marcellinus  ; 
never  to  Honorius.  This  ignorance  appears  in  a  very 
astonishing  way  under  Clement  V.  At  that  tiir.c 
there  was  on  the  part  of  the  French  a  pressing  desire 
for  a  formal  anathema  on  Boniface  VIII,  The 
defenders  of  this  pope  contended  that  as  being  a  dead 
man  who  could  no  longer  answer  for  himself,  he  was 
exempt  from  all  human  judgment,  and  therefore  even 
from  that  of  the  Roman  See.  The  instance  of 
Honorius  would  have  been  very  welcome  to  the  agents 
of  the  French  court ;  for  by  means  of  it  they  could 
have  proved  in  the  most  emphatic  way  that  the  Church 
had  certainly  sat  in  judgment  on  a  defunct  pope,  and 
had  condemned  him.  The  fact,  however,  had  long 
since  vanished  from  the  memories  of  jurists  no  less 

1  Contra  Guibertum  Antipapam,  Bill.  Palrum  Lugd.,  xviii.,  GOD. 

2  De  Divinia  OJic,  2,  22. 


246  THE  CASE  OF  HO  NO  RI  US. 

than  of  theologians  ;  and  hence  in  the  long  controversy 
and  legal  discussion  the  name  of  Honorius  was  never 
mentioned. 

Hence  it  has  come  to  pass  that  Platina  has  even 
made  Honorius  a  decided  opponent  of  Monothclitism, 
and  he  represents  Heraclius  as  banishing  Pyrrhus  and 
Cyrus  at  the  suggestion  of  Honorius.  But  that 
towards  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century  the  learned 
Panvinio,  whom  Cianoni  then  copied  in  turn,  should 
allow  this  to  pass  unchallenged,  is  scarcely  con- 
ceivable. 

The  fact  that  Plonorius  was  condemned  by  the 
sixth  general  council  was  first  brought  back  to  the 
memory  of  the  Western  Church  by  a  Greek  living  in 
Constantinople,  Manuel  Kalekas,  who  in  the  year 
1390  wrote  a  work  against  the  Byzantines  for  being 
separated  from  the  West.  The  papal  nuncio  Anton 
Massanus,  a  Minorite,  brought  the  book  from  Con- 
stantinople to  the  papal  court  in  142 1  ;  whereupon 
Martin  V.  had  it  translated  by  the  celebrated 
Camaldulensian  abbot,  Ambrose  Traversari.  From  it 
cardinal  Torquemada,  ^  who  wrote  his  Stimma  about 
tho  year  1450,  first  learnt  the  condemnation  of 
Hoaorius,  v/hich  disturbed  him  greatly;   for   by  no 

1  Qutti/et  EuLaid,  Sirt^jlores  0.  P.,  I,  Ti8. 


THE  CASE  OF  HO  NO  RI  US.  247 

sort  of  means  would  it  work  into  his  system.  ^ 
Kalekas  had  made  light  of  the  affair  in  his  contro- 
versy with  the  Greeks.  lie  had  contented  himself 
with  referring  to  the  excuse  which  Maximus  makes 
for  Ilonorius,  without  troubling  himself  with  the 
consideration  that  the  judgment  of  an  oecumenical 
council  must  have  an  authority  very  different  from 
the  evasive  answer  of  a  theologian,  who  knew  of 
no  other  way  of  helping  his  case  than  to  make  the 
secretary  answerable  for  the  errors  contained  in  the 
pope's  2  letter.  Now  Torquemada  was  acquainted 
with  the  declaration  of  Hadrian  II.  from  the  Acts  of 
the  eighth  council,  to  the  effect  that  Ilonorius  had 
been  anathematised  for  heresy.  Nevertheless,  he 
says  that  we  must  suppose  that  the  Orientals  were 
misinformed  about  Ilonorius,  and  so  had  condemned 
him  under  ^  a  mistake.  His  sole  ground  lor  saying 
this  is,  that  pope  Agatho,  in  enumerating  the 
Monolhelite  leaders,  has  not  mentioned  Ilonorius 
among  them. 

This  attempt  to  load  an  oecumenical  council  with 

1  Summa  de  Ecdetia,  2,  fS,  cd.  Vcnot.,  loCO,  f,  223.  This  is  tlio 
most  important  work  of  the  Middle  Ages  on  the  qucstiou  of  tho 
extent  of  the  papal  power. 

2  Contra  GroccO'um  errores,  Ingolst.,  1G08,  p.  381. 

3  "  Creditui  quod  hoc  fecerint  Orirutalos  ex  mala  ct  falsa  siaistra 
"luformatlouc  dc  pvaciato  liuaurio  deccpti." 


248  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

the  charge  of  a  gross  error,  merely  to  rescue  the 
honour  of  one  pope,  remained,  however,  on  the 
whole,  unobserved,  and  stood  alone  at  that  time. 
For  then,  as  through  the  whole  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
the  view  still  prevailed  that  a  pope  could  certainly 
apostatise  from  the  faith  and  become  heretical,  and 
in  such  a  case  both  could  and  ought  to  be  deposed. 

Not  until  after  the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century 
did  any  one  occupy  himself  seriously  with  the  question 
of  Honorius.  The  fact  of  the  condemnation  was 
irreconcileable  with  the  system  then  developed  by 
Baronius,  Bellarmine,  and  others.  Attempts  were 
accordingly  made  to  set  it  aside.  It  was  pretended, 
that  is  to  say,  that  the  Acts  of  the  sixth  council  had 
been  falsified  by  the  Greeks  of  a  later  age,  and  all 
therein  that  concerned  Honorius  had  been  inter- 
polated by  them,  in  order  that  the  disgrace  of  so 
many  Oriental  patriarchs  being  condemned  for  heresy 
might  be  lessened  by  the  shame  of  a  pope  being 
found  in  the  same  predicament.  Then  it  became 
necessary  to  declare  that  the  letter  of  Leo  II.  was 
also  interpolated.  And  on  this  Baronius,  Bellarmine, 
Ilosius,  Binius,  Duval,  and  the  Jesuits  Taniier  and 
Gretscr  determined.  But  when  the  Liber  Diiir'uns 
came  to  light,  the  nullity  of  this  attempt  was  dis- 
closed.  Another  mode  of  gctthig  out  Ox  the  difficulty 


THE  CASE  OF  IIONORIUS.  249 

proved  still  more  untenable  ;  this  was  to  deny  the 
condemnation  of  Honorius  at  the  sixth  council,  and 
transfer  it  to  another  purely  Greek  synod  (the 
quinisext  ^  council  of  A.D.  692  is  apparently  the  one 
meant),  the  Acts  of  which  were  then  inserted  in  those 
of  the  sixth  council.  This  was  the  device  resorted 
to  by  Sylvius  Lupus,  and  the  Roman  oratorian 
Marchese,  who  has  set  forth  this  idea  in  a  book 
of  his  own. 2 

That  the  letters  of  Honorius  were  forgeries,  or  that 
they  had  been  interpolated,  was  somewhat  more 
conceivable ;  at  least  the  supposition  demanded  no 
such  immense  and  elaborate  apparatus  of  falsification 
as  Baronius  and  Bcllarmine  pictured  to  themselves, 
or  at  any  rate  to  their  readers.  This  mode  of  escape 
therefore  was  chosen  by  Gravlna  and  Coster  ; 
Stapleton  also  and  Wiggers  were  inclined ^  towards  it, 

1  [Called  quinisext,  as  being  supplementary  to  the  fifth  nnd  sixth 
councils.  It  is  al.so  known  as  the  Trullan,  from  the  Trulhis  or 
vaulted  hall,  in  which  it  was  licld.  The  date  of  it  is  doubtful ; 
636,  691,  692  have  all  been  suggested.  Harduin  places  it  as  late 
as  706.  The  two  papal  legates  signed  its  102  canons;  but  pope 
Sergius  I.,  to  the  chagrin  of  the  emperor  Justinian  II.,  declined  to 
do  so.  The  council  was  recognised  by  the  East  only,  where  il»  Acts 
were  quoted  as  those  of  the  sixth  council ;  and  this  was  the  first  grave 
step  towards  Iho  schism  between  the  East  and  the  Wcst.J 

2  Clypeusfortium,  sive  Vitidicix  llonorii  Papst.    Rom;c,  1G80. 

3  Against  endeavours  such  as  these  of  Bjllarmiue,  Baronius,  and 
oUicrti  after  them, — to  set  aside  well-attested  historical  facts  by 


250  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

Seeing-,  however,  that  the  letters  of  Ilonorlus  were 
laid  before  the  council,  examined,  and  condemned  in 
the  presence  of  the  papal  legates,  who  at  any  rate  must 
have  known  their  contents,  it  was  found  necessary  to 
abandon  this  method  of  getting  out  of  the  difficulty 
also.  Several,  therefore,  preferred  to  maintain  that 
Honorius  himself  had  taught  what  was  orthodox, 
and  had  only  been  condemned  by  the  council  because 
he  had  shown  leniency  to  heresy  from  an  ill-timed 
love  of  peace,  and  had  favoured  it  by  rejecting  a 
dogmatic  expression  which  had  become  indispensable. 
So  De  Marca,  Natalis  Alexander,  Garnier,  Du 
Ilamcl,    Lupus,  Tamagnini,  Pagi  and  many   others. 

This  method  of  defending  Honorius  became  a 
very  favourite  one  after  the  outbreak  of  the  Jan- 
senite  troubles.  It  is  chiefly  owing  to  the  Jansenists 
that  the  question  of  Honorius  has  become  a  qua:stio 
vexata,   in   which   every    effort    has   been    made    to 

throwing  suspicion  on  the  w!tncss;^s  and  documents,  because  they 
will  not  square  with  the  system  of  a  particular  school  or  party,^ 
cardinal  Sfondrati  has  spoken  out  very  strongly  on  this  very  ques- 
tion of  Honorius.  "Quid  hoc  aliud  est,  quara  contra  torrontem 
"  navigare,  omnemque  historiam  ccclesiasticam  in  dubium  vocarc? 
"  Sublutjv  vero  historia  et  conscquenter  traditionc  usuquu  Ecclesi.T, 
"  qu;c  tu  arraa  contra  ha; re ti cos  satis  valida  habcbis?  Male  ergo,  ut 
"  nobis  quidc-m  vidotur,  Ecclesim  illi  consuluni-,  qui  ut  Iluiiuiii 
"  tausjira  tujantiir,  historiam  Ecclesiamqiie  cxuimaat.  Ergo  si 
"  tostibus  agenda  res  est,  Honorius  Papa  haiicLicus  fuil." — l^uycaii 
Lombardi  Regale  Sacerdolium,  p.  721,  sq. 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORWS.         211 

confuse  and  set  aside  the  facts,  and  with  which  since 
1650  almost  every  theologian  of  note  has  occupied 
himself.  So  that  within  a  period  of  about  130  years 
one  may  say  that  more  has  been  written  on  this  one 
question  of  ecclesiastical  history  than  on  any  other  in 
1500  years.  For  the  Jansenists  it  was  all-important 
to  invalidate  the  judgment  which  the  Church  had 
pronounced  on  the  work  of  Jansen,  Accordingly  they 
put  forth  the  theory  that  the  Church  both  could  err 
and  had  erred  ;  not,  indeed,  in  the  setting  forth  ol 
doctrine,  but  in  "  dogmatic  questions  of  fact,"  that  is 
to  say,  in  its  judgment  on  a  book,  or  its  interpretation 
of  a  dogmatic  te.xt.  They  set  themselves  therefore 
on  the  side  of  Ilonorius  against  the  council,  and 
readily  pursued  the  course  v.hich  had  already  been 
opened  by  cardinals  Torqucmada,  Baronius,  Bellar- 
mine,    Dc   Laurea,    and  Aguirre,  ^  maintaining  that 

1  For  these  writers,  forcsooing  thrit  the  theory  of  a  falsificntion  of 
the  Acts  would  not  hold  water,  had  already  taken  up  (he  other 
alternative,  that  the  cotnicil  had  made  a  mistake  in  its  judgment  on 
llic  decretals  of  Ifonorius — HLnmtUs  (/'rivil.  ronlif.  Vindtciar, 
Rom.,  1759,  P.  ii.,  T.  v.,  p.  389)  admiL>»,  "  Turrccremata;,  Baronio, 
"  Bollarmino  ac  Spondano  locutioncs  cxei<lisso  minus  accuratas  ac 
•'  paulo  asperiores."  They  have  simply  sacrificed  the  authority  of 
an  cecumeuical  council,  and  of  a  decision  acoptcd  by  the  Papal  Seo 
itaulf,  to  the  interests  of  their  own  theory.  [So  also  Pcro  Gratry : 
"  On  m'accuse  de  manquer  i  I'i^^'li.se,  notrc  mere,  parce  que  jo 
"  dcuonce  le  pernicieux  m 'usonge  des  dccrclaleg  dans  lea  le(;ons  (hi 
"  Brcviaire  romain.     Lc  brcviaire  cst-il  done  I'lSylise,  et  Ics  Icgccdea 


252  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

grievous  wrong  had  been  done  to  Honorius  and  his 
letters  by  the  judgment  of  the  council.  The  council, 
in  spite  of  the  care  which  it  bestowed,  and  although 
the  matter  in  question  was  at  that  time  current  with 
every  one,  had  been  mistaken  in  their  decision !  The 
opponents  of  the  Jansenists,  who  would  not  allow  that 
the  Church  had  condemned  a  pope  as  heretical  and 
expelled  him  from  communion,  preferred  rather  to  do 
violence  to  the  clear  words  of  the  council,  in  order 
to  say  that  Honorius  had  become  subject  to  the 
anathema  of  the  council,  not  on  account  of  positive, 
but  only  of  "  negative"  heresy  ;  that  is  to  say, 
merely  because  he  had  countenanced  other  heretics 
and  favoured  their  false  ^  doctrine.  But  Fenelon  had 
already  pointed  out  that,    with  all  the  artifices  and 

"sont-clles  done  lo  brcviaire?  Mais,  qnoi !  si  Ton  manque  i  ri5^i;1is8 
"pour  vouloir  effacer  dcs  erreurs  dans  Ics  Icnons  du  Breviaire 
"  remain,  que  dire  do  ceux  qui  veuleat  effacer  des  dccrets  de  foi 
"dans  Ics  coneiles  occumeniques?  .  .  .  Oui,  je  demande  cc  qu'il 
"  faut  dire  de  ceux  qui  traitcnt  ainsi  lea  dccrets  des  coneiles ;  qr.i^ 
"  voyant  Honorius  condamne  par  trois  coneiles  oecum6ui(iues,  .sans 
"  compter  vingt  papes,  rcpondent  tons  simijlem  nit  ([uc  ces  con- 
"  ciles  se  sont  trompcs !" —  Troisilme  letlre  d  Monseijiieur  VArche- 
veque  de  Malines.     Paris,  1870,  i.,  p.  5.] 

1  It  is  specially  the  Jesuit  Garnicr,  who,  in  liis  notes  to  the  Liber 
Diurnux,  has  expended  great  pains  on  this  point.  A  whole  host  of 
theologians  Jjave  followed  hira.  At  last  Pal  ma  (/'riTe?.''0  tones  Jlist. 
Eccles.,  ii ,  127),  whoso  efforts  go  beyond  everything  with  tliis  con- 
clusion, asserts  that  the  council  certainly  invoked  an  anathema  on 
Honorius,  but  in  the  expression  of  it  was  not  quite  in  earnest. 


THE  CASE  OF  HONOR! US.  253 

explanations  by  means  of  which  the  orthodoxy  of 
Ilonorius  was  to  be  saved,  nothing  after  all  was  to  be 
gained.  For  the  paramount  question  must  always 
be  this : — Has  the  Church,  represented  by  a  full 
oecumenical  council,  declared  the  dogmatic  writings 
of  a  pope  to  be  heretical,  and  thus  recognised  the 
fal'ibUily  of  popes?  If  this  question  must  be  answered 
in  the  affirmative,  then  it  matters  very  little  for  the 
interests  of  the  Roman  See  whether  the  synod,  in  the 
application  of  the  principle  to  a  particular  case  (the 
meaning  of  the  letter  of  Ilonorius),  has  made  a 
mistake  or  not.  ^ 

Some  Italians  of  the  last  century — for  example, 
bishop  Bartoli  and  the  librarian  Ughi — once  more 
took  refuge  in  the  favourite  and  most  convenient 
falsification  theory,  which  makes  very  short  work 
of  every  stubborn  fact.  According  to  Bartoli,  ^  the 
letters  of  Ilonorius  are  forgeries.  At  the  same  time, 
however,  Bartoli  adopted  the  discovery  which  had 
already  been  made  by  the  Augustinian  Desirant,  that 
besides  this  the  Greeks  had  forged  also  the  letters  of 
Scrgius  ;  so  that  the  doubly-deceived  synod  had 
regarded  the  letter  of  Ilonorius  also,  which   agreed 

1  Troiiiime  instr.  pastor,  sur  U  Cas  de  Conscience.     CEavres,  id.  de 
Versailles,  xi.,  483. 

2  Apologia  pro  Uonorio  I.  Rom.  Fonti/.,  Ausugii,  1750. 

2Z 


254  THE  CASE  OF  HOXORIUS. 

with  that  of  Sergiu>.  as  heretical,  Ughl  ^  admitted 
that  the  synod  openly  condemned  Honorius  for 
heresy ;  but  tliinks  that  it  acted  carelessly  and 
without  thought  in  so  doing,  because  it  allowed  itself 
to  be  deceived  by  the  letter  which  had  been  foisted 
upon  Honorius.  And,  not  to  adopt  any  half  measures, 
he  declares  that  the  letters  of  Leo  II.  are  also 
spurious.  The  French  theologian,  Corgne,  likewise 
has  resorted  to  this  lamentable  expedient.  ^ 

Arsdekin  and  Cavalcanti  thought  of  another 
loophole,  through  which  it  was  possible  to  escape 
from  the  unwelcome  conclusion,  viz.,  that  it  was  the 
Greeks  alone  who,  at  the  sixth  council,  pronounced 
the  unjust  sentence  upon  Honorius  ;  the  Latins 
present  had  not  taken  part  in  this  mistaken  proceeding. 

On  the  other  hand,  their  contemporary,  bishop 
Duplessis  d'Argentre,  maintained  that  the  council 
had  condemned  Honorius  as  a  Jici-ctic,  and  with 
justice,  for  God  had  allowed  him  to  fall  into  these 
errors  in  his  letter  to   Sergius,  in  order  that    popes 

1  '-Q^ife  omnia."  lie  remarks.  af:er  qnotinr  the  m^ct  d'='cisiTe 
passag-'-sfrom  the  act*  of  the  conncil,  "nullo  cnqnam  t:-mperamento 
*•  '-•mollila  .  .  .  manifi-^ste  demon?trant  fui?se  Honorium  non  solum- 
^  modo  tanq'iam  deddrrm,  s.-d — tanqijam  veram  harreticum  a  stockjO 
»•  VI.  prose  ript tun." — De  Ujno.ij  I.  Fordif.  Max.  LiUr,  Bonoui^e, 
17:4,  p.  54,  cf  p   93. 

2  DutfTtaiiva  criiiqw  el  Ouiologiq^-'ie  rur  U  ifonot/Uiiime,  Parij=^ 
1741,  p.  li  6q 


THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 


■2:3 


might  learn  by  his  example  that  freedom  from  error  in 
the  setting  forth  of  doctrine  was  assured  to  them  only 
on  condition  of  their  taking  proper  counsel,  which  he 
had  neglected  to  do.  ^  Cardinal  Orsi  also  has  fully 
recognised  the  untenableness  of  the  efforts  to  save 
the  orthodoxy  of  Honorius,  and  the  openings  for 
attack  which  were  thus  exposed  by  shortsighted 
theologians.  He  withdraws,  therefore,  back  to  the 
point  of  view,  that  Honorius  spoke  only  as  a  private 
teacher,  neither  as  pope,  nor  in  the  name  of  the 
Roman  Church  giving  a  solemn  decision  after  the 
ncccssar\-  taking  of  counsel  {ex  cathedra).  Cardinal 
Luzerne  has  subjected  these  tenets  to  a  sliarp  - 
criticism.  One  cannot  say,  he  justly  remarks,  that 
Honorius  gave  his  opinion  on  the  Monothelite 
question  not  as  pope,  but  only  as  a  private  teacher. 
The  question  was  put  to  him  as  pope,  and  he 
answered  as  pope,  in  the  same  tone  and  style  in 
which  his  predecessors,  Celestine  and  Leo,  had 
answered  on  dogmatic  questions.  Orsi,  however,  is 
quite  right  on  his  side,  when  he  argues  that  Honorius 
gave  his  decision  without  a  council  and  on  his  own 

1  Collectia  Judiciorum  df  yoria  E-ronhu3.  Paris,  1724,  T.  I^ 
pra?f ,  p  4.  .^nd  ia  his  Virix  Dis^'s:a:iorui  ikeoi.  ad  Optrz.  il. 
Grandin.  Pari^.  1712,  ii..  2:i\ 

2  Sur  U  DicUratton  du  CU-gf.  (Euvres,  Paris,  !?"3.  ii.,  42,  and 
190  s*i.     [Oa  deciiiooi  '•  ez  oiihedrd, '  s<;e  Api>cUviii  K.J 


256  THE  CASE  OF  HONORIUS. 

responsibility ;  without  troubling  himself  about  the 
doctrine  held  by  the  Churches  of  the  West,  which 
from  the  first  had  ahvays  beheved  in  a  duahty  of 
wills ;  without  even  giving  the  Roman  Church  itself 
the  opportunity  of  making  known  its  creed  as  regards 
this  question.  If  the  idea  of  a  decision  ex  cathedrA 
be  duly  expanded,  and  only  those  dogmatic 
announcements  be  I'eckoncd  as  ex  cathedrd  Vv'hich  a 
pope  issues,  not  in  his  own  name  and  for  himself,  but 
in  the  name  of  the  Church,  witJi  full  conscioicsness  of 
the  doctrine  prevailing  in  the  CJinrch,  and  tlicrcfore 
after  previous  inquiry  or  discussion  by  a  council — 
then,  and  only  then,  can  one  say  that  judgment 
about  Honorius  was  not  given  ^  ex  cathedrd.  Neither 
the  Roman  Church,  nor  the  Western,  nor  the  greater 
part  of  the  Eastern  Church,  has  ever  been  Mono- 
thelite.  Nevertheless,  Honorius  sent  letters  to  the 
Eastern  Church,  about  the  Monothelite  meaning  of 
which  assuredly  not  a  doubt  would  ever  have  been 
raised,  but  for  the  fact  that  the  author  was  a  pope. 
Accordingly,  the  old  Roman  breviary  designates  him 
simply  as  a  Monothelite.  ^ 

1  [With  this  interpretation  one  would  readily  admit  that  not  only 
the  pope,  but  every  bishop  is  infallible,  when  ho  speaks  ex  cathedra.^ 

2  II 'felc,  in  liis  Concilievrjenchichte,  and  in  the  discussion  in  the 
T  hiniji-n  Quart'tlschri/l,  'year.  1857,  has  treated  the  question  of 
Honorius  with  jjliilosophic  impartiality,  accuracy,  and  thoroughness. 
[See  also  four  letters  to  Monseigneur  Deschamps,  archbishop  of 
Malines,  by  A.  Gratry,  priest  of  the  Oratory.    Paris,  1870.J 


IX.  POPE  GREGORY  II.  AND  THE  EMPEROR 
LEO  THE  ISAURIAN. 

According  to  later  historians,  who  have  been  eagerly 
followed  by  many  theologians,  Gregory  II.  deprived 
the  iconoclast  emperor  Leo  of  the  kingdom  of  Italy, 
and  induced  the  Italians  to  throw  off  their  allegiance 
to  him,  because  he  attempted  to  carry  his  edict 
against  the  use  of  images  into  effect  in  Italy  as  well 
as  in  the  East.  Baronius,  Bcllarmine,  and  others 
have  made  this  supposed  fact  a  main  support  of  their 
system  with  regard  to  the  authority  of  popes  over  the 
temporal  power. 

Of  the  biographers  of  popes  in  the  Middle  Ages, 
Martinus  Polonus  is  the  only  one  who,  while  he  makes 
a  confusion  by  transferring  the  matter  to  Gregory  III., 
asserts  that  the  pope,  recognising  in  the  emperor  Leo 
an  incorrigible  iconoclast,  induced  Rome,  Italy,  Spain, 
and  the  "  whole  of  the  West  "  to  throw  off  their  alle- 
giance to  the  cmperor,and  forbade  all  payment  of  taxes 
to  him.  We  have  here  another  proof  of  the  incred- 
ible ignorance  of  Martinus  Polonus,  in  representing 
Spain — Gothic  and  even  Saracen  Spain — as  throwing 
off  their  allegiance.     And  besides  that,  what  we  arc 

2J7 


2S8  GREGOR  Y  II  AND  LEO  III 

to  understand  by  the  "  whole  of  the  West,"  he  himself 
would  have  had  some  difficulty  in  showing.  The 
other  papal  biographers,  Amalrich,  Guidonis,  Leo  of 
Orvieto,  and  others,  know  pothing  of  the  secession  of 
Italy  from  the  empire.  But  before  Martinus  Polonus, 
Sigebert  of  Gemblours,  Otto  of  Freysingen,  Gottfried 
of  Viterbo,  Albert  of  Stade,  and  the  so-called  Landulf, 
the  late  compiler  of  the  Historia  Miscclla,  had  already 
accepted  the  statement  that  pope  Gregory  induced 
the  Italians  to  revolt  from  Leo.  All  of  these,  as  well 
as  the  Byzantines  Zonaras,  ^  Cedrenus,  and  Glykas, 
received  the  statement  from  one  and  the  same  single 
source.  This  source  is  the  chronicler  Theophanes, 
who  wrote  the  history  of  this  period  eighty  years 
after  it  (he  died  not  earlier  than  A.D,  819) ;  and  his 
work,  in  the  abbreviated  Latin  translation  of  Anas- 
tasius  Bibliothecarius,  was  used  by  the  above-men- 
tioned Latin  chroniclers  cither  directly  or  indirectly. 
It  is  altogether  futile,  therefore,  to  pile  up  names 
of  witnesses  to  this  supposed  fact  (after  the  manner 
of  Bianchi  '^),  and  add  to  these  Nauclerus,  and  Platina 
also.  All  these  witnesses  resolve  themselves  into 
one ;  and  the  investigator  has  merely  to  show  (i)  that 

1  [Zonaras  and  Michael  Glykas  bring  their  chronicles  down  to 
the  death  of  the  emperor  Alexis  I.,  Comnenus,  1118;  Cedrenus,  to 
1057.] 

2  Delia  Polestd,  e  delta  Folizia  della  Chiesa.     Eom.,  1 745,  i.,  382. 


GREGOR  V  II  AND  LEO  III.  259 

Theophanes  ^  is  a  late  authority,  very  little  acquainted 
with  Italian  affairs  ;  (2)  that  the  two  contemporary 
Italian  witnesses,  Paulus  Diaconus,  and  the  anony- 
mous biographer  of  Gregory  in  the  Pontifical  book, 
state  just  the  opposite  of  what  Theophanes  says  ;  and 
(3)  that  Zonaras,  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  certainly 
Ccdronus  (both  of  whom  merely  cojJicd  Theophanes) 
arc  here  utterly  unworthy  of  consideration.  The 
special  object  of  Zonaras,  moreover,  is  to  throw  the 
blame  of  the  loss  of  its  Italian  possessions  by  the 
Greek  empire  on  the  papacy.  Accordingly  he  de- 
corates the  erroneous  statement  of  Theophanes  with 
the  further  statement  that  Gregory  made  an  alliance 
with  the  Franks,  who  hereupon  got  possession  of 
Rome,  a  statement  which  he  thrice  repeats.  That  is, 
he  transfers  events,  which  first  took  place  under  Pepin 
and  Charles  the  Great,  to  the  time  of  Gregory  II.  and 
Charles  Martel. 

The  truth  of  the  matter  is,  then,  that,  according  to 
the  accounts  of  the  two  Italian  contemporaries  and 

1  [Theophanes  was  bom  about  a.d.  750.  He  was  a  most  zealous 
advocate  of  the  use  of  images  at  the  second  council  of  Nitica  in  787. 
Leo  the  Armenian  made  him  an  object  of  persecution  for  his  support 
to  (he  cause  of  image-worship,  imprisoned  liim  for  two  yiars,  and 
finally  hanislud  him  to  Saniothrace,  where  he  died  almost  imme- 
diately, March,  818.  His  chronicle  is  a  continuati(m  of  that  of  hia 
friend  Syncellus,  commencing  with  the  accession  of  Diocletian  in  284, 
and  going  down  to  8 13. J 


26o  GREGOR  Y  II  AND  LEO  III. 

Gregory's  own  statements  in  his  letter  to  Leo,  this 
pope,  far  from  wishing  or  effecting  the  overthrow  of 
the  Byzantine  dominion  in  Italy,  was  rather  the  only, 
or  at  any  rate  the  principal,  cause  of  its  maintenance. 
It  is  true  that,  when  Leo  ordered  the  destruction  of 
pictures  and  dismantling  of  churches,  the  Romans  and 
inhabitants  of  Eastern  ^  Italy,  from  Venice  to  Osimo, 
flung  off  the  Greek  yoke,  and  even  wished  to  elect  an 
emperor  of  their  own.  But  Gregory  strained  every 
nerve  to  prevent  this,  and  exhorted  them  unceasingly 
to  maintain  their  allegiance  to  the  Roman  empire  of 
the  East. 2  The  biographer  in  the  Pontifical  book, 
who,  from  the  fullness,  insight,  and  liveliness  exhibited 
in  his  narrative,  is  easily  seen  to  be  a  contemporary 
and  eye-witness,  gives  only  one  circumstance  which 
seems  to  go  beyond  the  line  of  loyal  obedience 
otherwise  observed  with  great  strictness  by  Gregory, 
and  has  given  Theophanes  an  opening  for  his  mis- 
representation. The  patrician  Paul,  he  says,  on 
becoming  exarch,  made  an  attempt  on  the  life  of  the 
pope,  because  he  attempted  to  hinder  ^  the  imposition 

1  fTlic  Greek  dominions  in  Italy  at  this  time  were  • — el)  tlie  ex. 
nrcliato  of  Kavonna,  (2)  the  duehy  of  Rome  and  Na])les,  (3)  tlie  cities 
oil  tlic  coiibt  of  Liguria,  and  (4)  the  2)rovinccs  in  the  extreme  south 
oi  Italy  ] 

2  I'uiil  Diac ,  de  Ge&lis  Lonffob.,  6,  49  ;  Liber  Ponii/.,  ed.  Vignoli, 
ii.,  27-36. 

3  "  Eo  quod  censum  in  provincii  jwssi  prtepediebat,"  1.  c,  p.  28. 


GREG  OR  Y  11  AND  LEO  IIL  261 

of  a  tax  in  the  province,  and  would  not  consent  to  the 
plundering  of  the  churches — that  is,  the  carrying  off  of 
pictures  and  of  vessels  ornamented  with  figures  of 
saints.  Here  the  point  at  issue  wds  hindering  the 
levying  of  a  new  impost,  in  which  the  pope  did  no 
more  than  set  a  precedent,  which  was  then  followed 
by  others,  of  refusing  to  pay  a  new  impost  out  of  the 
great  and  numerous  patrimonies  of  the  church.  But 
Theophancs  and  the  Greeks  ^  after  him  represent  this 
as  an  injunction  issued  to  the  Italians  not  to  pay  any 
more  taxes  whatever. 

Ilefcle,  following  Bossuct  and  Muratori,  has  set  the 
events  which  took  place  in  Italy  at  that  time  in  their 
true  light,  and  has  shown  how  devoid  of  foundation 
the  Greek  statement  '^  is.  It  would  have  been  suffi- 
cient   merely    to    call    attention    to    this,    had    not 

1  fin  tin's  th'^y  ar  ■  fnHr.wf^fl  l>y  GiMmn.  "  Tlic  mrxst  rfTivtitcl  and 
"pi  asiiifj  mciisiirc  of  nbt  llion  was  the  witliholdinj;  the  tribute  of 
"Italy,  and  depriving  him  of  a  power  wiiich  he  had  recently  abused 
"by  the  imposition  of  a  new  capitHtii>n."  In  a  note  be  adds,  "A 
"census,  or  cai)itation,  says  Anastasiiis  (p.  loG):  a  most  cruel  tax, 
"  unknown  to  the  Saracens  themselves,  exclaims  the  zealous  Maiin- 
"  bourg  {Hist,  des  Iconoclasles,  1.  1.),  and  Thtophanes  (p.  3.54  [tom, 
"  i.,  p.  301,  ed  1  oirnj)  wlio  Ijilks  of  Pharaoh's  uunibriii;;  the  male 
"children  of  Israel.  This  minle  of  taxation  wa-s  familiar  to  the 
"Saracens;  and,  most  unluckily  for  the  historian,  it  w.is  imj)osed  a 
"  fow  years  afterwards  in  France  by  his  patron  Louis  XIV." — Di-cune 
and  Fall  o/  i/.e  Roman  Em^/iie,  chap,  xlix.,  note  33  j 

a  Concilienffeschichte,  iii.,  355  fif. 


262  GREGOR  Y  II  AND  LEO  III. 

Gregorovius  lately  revived  once  more  the  old  view  of 
Bellarmine,  and  represented  the  pope  as  in  open  revolt 
against  the  emperor.  "  Gregory,"  he  states,  "  now 
"decided  upon  open  resistance  ....  he  armed  him- 
"  self,  as  the  Pontifical  book  says,  against  the  emperor 
"as  against  a  foe  ....  The  act  of  open  rebellion,  at 
"the  head  of  which  the  pope  boldly  placed  himself, 
"  was  perhaps  even  definitely  declared  by  refusal  of 
"tfie  tribute  from  the  duchy  of  Rome,"^  &c.  But  in 
manifest  contradiction  to  this  view,  he  states  further 
on,  "  Gregory  could  not  withdraw  himself  from  the 
"tradition  of  the  Roman  empire,  the  seat  of  which 
"  was  Byzantium ;  with  prudent  moderation  he 
"  restrained  the  rebellious  Italians,  and  appealed  to  the 
"  legitimate  rights  of  the  emperor,  whom  he  had  no 
"longer  much  need  to  fear"  (page  257). 

Is  it  conceivable  that  so  prudent  a  man  as  (on 
Gregorovius'  own  showing)  this  pope  was,  should  first 
have  set  himself  at  the  head  of  an  open  rebellion,  and 
then  directly  afterwards,  without  any  external  com- 
pulsion, should  again  have  quashed  the  rebellion,  and 
come  forward  as  champion  of  the  emperor's  rights  ? 
For  the  view  that  the  pope  originated  and  directed 
the  revolt  of  the  Italians,  Gregorovius  has  given  no 
other  evidence  than  his  quotation  of  the  words  of  the 

1   Geschichle  der  Stadt  Rom.,ii.,  255. 


GREGOR  Y  IT  AND  LEO  III.  263 

rontifical  book,  "he  armed  himself  aj^alnst  the 
"emperor  as  against  a  foe ; "  ^  but  the  words  which 
immediately  foil  Iw,  and  v/hich  explain  the  meaning 
of  this  "  arming  "  he  emits,  namely,  the  words,  "  in 
"  that  he  rejected  the  emperor's  heresy,  and  sent 
"  letters  everywhere,  bidding  Christians  to  be  on  their 
"guard  against  the  new  form  of  impiety  that  had 
"appeared."  Gregory,  therefore,  kept  himself  rigor- 
ously within  the  sphere  of  ecclesiastical  matters, 
declared  himself  the  opponent  of  the  imperial  decree 
against  the  use  of  images,  and  charged  the  faithful 
not  to  destroy  their  images.  But  at  the  same  time  he 
exhorted  them  to  show  civil  obedience  to  the  imperial 
power,  so  much  so  that  he  used  all  his  influence  to 
preserve  Ravenna  for  the  empire,  when  the  Lombards 
were  threatening  to  seize  it ;  and  he  placed  ^  forces  at 

1  fGilibon  quotes  the  ■whole  passnpc,  but  fraws  the  same  conclu- 
sion as  Gregorovins.  "  Without  depending  on  praj-crs  and  miracles, 
«' he  boldly  armed  against  the  public  cm  my,  and  his  pastoral  letters 
"admonished  the  Italians  of  their  danger  and  their  duty."  To 
which  he  subjoins  in  the  note:  "I  shall  transcribe  the  important 
"  passage  of  the  Liber  Pontificalis."  "  liespicicns  ergo  plus  vir 
"  profanam  principis  jussionem,  jam  contra  Imperatorem  quas| 
"contra  hostem  se  armavit,  rcnuens  luTresim  ejus,  scribens  ubiquo 
"  se  cavere  Chrisdanos,  co  quoil  orta  fuisset  impietas  talis.  Igilur 
"  pcrmoti  omnes  Pentapolenses,  atque  Vmetiarum  cxercitus  contra 
"  Im|)eratoris  jussionem  restiterunt :  dicentes  se  nunquam  in  ejusdem 
"  pontificis  condescendere  neccm,  sed  pro  ejus  magis  deiensiono 
"  viriliter  decertiiic  "  (p.  15G),  1   c,  note  37.] 

2  [This  was  partly  the  result  of  the  interference  of  the  Lonibard 


264  GREG  OR  Y  II  AND  LEO  III. 

the  disposal  of  the  imperial  governor  Eutychius,  by 
means  of  which  Eutychius  was  able  to  put  down  the 
revolt  of  Tiberius  Petavius  in  Tuscany. 

A  glance  at  the  position  of  affairs  shows  that 
Gregory,  ^  straitened  as  were  the  limits  within  wliich 
the  difficulties  of  his  surroundings  allowed  him  to  act, 
nevertheless  v/ell  understood  how  to  maintain  the  true 
bearing  which  prudence  and  duty  alike  dictated. 

lvfn.2:  himself  (see  next  note).  It  is  the  more  remarkahle,  inasmuch 
as  Kntychius,  the  last  exarch  of  Eavcnna,  had  come  on  an  icono- 
clastic mission  from  Constantinople  ;  and  it  was  commonly  believed 
of  him,  as  of  other  imperial  emissaries  before  him,  that  he  meditatod 
the  assassination  of  the  pope.  It  was  thanks  to  Gregory  that 
Eutj'chius  was  not  assassinated  himself.] 

1  [Gregory  was  under  the  influence  of  two  violent  and  conCiclin:^ 
feelings,  horror  of  an  iconoclastic  emperor  (an  iconoclast  in  the 
eyes  of  an  Italian  was  scarcely  a  Christian),  and  horror  of  a  Lom- 
bard Kunremacy.  When  Ravenna  was  taken  by  the  Lombards,  ho 
organised  a  league  between  Venice,  the  exarch  iScholasticus,  and 
Home;  and  the  forces  thus  raised  recaptured  Ravenna  while  Luit- 
prand  was  away  at  Pavia,  ad.  T27.  Two  years  later,  however,  wo 
find  Liutprand  acting  the  part  of  mediator  between  Gregory  and  (Iio 
exarch  Eutychius.  As  regards  the  question  of  ieonoclasni,  it  was 
one  fanatic  against  another.  L"o  was  at  least  as  fanatical  in  his 
attack  on  the  use  of  images,  as  Gregory  in  his  su])port  of  it.  And 
when  it  is  urged  in  proof  of  the  pope's  reb'.'llion  that  he  excommuni- 
cated the  emperor,  we  must  renumber  that  at  that  time  excommuni- 
calion  of  a  prince  did  not  neces.sarily  carry  with  it  a  release  of  his 
subjects  from  their  allegiance ;  it  did  not  even  cut  off  the  prince 
himself  from  all  sitiritual  privileges.  It  merely  declared  in  solemn 
terms  that  the  pope  declined  to  communicate;  witli  him.  Rut '■  si 
"quis  ....  imaginum  .saerarum  ....  di'structor  ....  extitinitj 
"hit  extorris  a  corpore  D.  N.  Jesu  CiirisU  vel  totius  ecciesiai 
«  unitale, "  io  strong  language.] 


GREGOR  Y  IT  AND  LEO  III.  265 

The  gravest  peril,  the  most  pressing  and  disastrous 
fate  in  the  eyes  of  the  Romans  at  that  time,  and 
especially  of  the  popes,  was  to  be  swallowed  up  by 
the  Lombards.  Gregory  shared  the  general  feeling, 
and  he,  too,  speaks  of  the  "  gens  nefanda  Longobar- 
dorum."  1  And  this  fate,  to  become  the  prey  of  the 
detested  foreigner,  was  inevitable  for  Rome  and  the 
rest  of  Byzantine  Italy,  as  soon  as  the  power  of 
Constantinople  in  the  West  Avas  broken.  That  these 
provinces,  if  left  alone,  could  not  maintain  themselves 
against  the  overwhelming  power  of  the  Lombards, 
Gregory  was  well  aware.  2  Above  all  would  protection 
be  needed  for  the  Roman  Sec ;  and  at  that  time  the 
Prankish  kingdom  alone,  under  its  prince,  Charles 
Martel,  could  have  given  this  protection.  Charles 
Martcl,  however,  was  fully  occupied  with  perpetual 
wars  against  the  Saxons,  Frisians,  Saracens,  and 
people  of  Aquitaine ;  and,  moreover,  was  on  friendly 

1  [frrccon'  commonrcs  his  letter  to  Ursiis,  ilo^o  of  Voniro,  on  the 
suhject  of  united  resistance  against  the  Lomh.inl.s,  in  these  words: 
•'Quia,  peccato  facientc,  Ilavennatum  civitas,  qua;  caput  extat 
"omnium,  a  nee  dicendii  gente  Longobardorum  capta  est." — Labbo, 
Coned.,  vi.,  1447.  The  Lomliards,  on  their  side,  had  a  similar  stylo 
of  abuse.  If  they  wished  to  express  the  bitterest  contempt  fur  a  too, 
they  called  him  a  Rimian.] 

2  [Vet,  as  Dr.  Dullinger  remarks  in  Essay  V.,  "  Gregory  II.  made 
"an  attemjit  to  form  a  confederation  of  states,  wliich  was  to  maintain 
"itself  independently  of  both  Greeks  and  Lombards,  the  head  of  it 
"to  bo  thi'  Roman  bee,"'  p.  121. J 

23 


266  GREGOR  Y  11  AND  LEO  III, 

terms  with  the  Lombard  king.  Thus  he  was  both 
unable  and  unwilhng  to  take  serious  part  in  Itahan 
affairs.  Hence  it  came  to  pass  that  lower  Italy,  in 
which  the  richest  possessions  of  the  Roman  Chair  lay, 
remained  then,  and  for  some  time  longer,  faitliful  to 
the  Roman  emperor  in  the  East.  Not  a  single 
attempt  was  made  there  to  revolt  from  him ;  and  if 
the  influence  of  the  pope  had  been  exerted  to  bring 
such  a  result  about,  it  would  certainly  have  failed, 
liad  Gregory  then,  as  Gregorovius  represents,  placed 
himself  at  the  head  of  a  rebellion,  he  would  have 
entered  upon  a  hopeless  undertaking,  involving  the 
most  ruinous  losses  to  the  Roman  See. 


X.   SYLVESTER   II. 

A  roPE,  who  was  held  in  great  honour  by  his  con- 
temporaries, who  was  renowned  as  the  most  learned 
scholar  and  the  most  enlightened  spirit  of  his  time, 
whose  memory  remained  unsullied  for  a  century  after 
his  death,  becomes  gradually  an  object  of  suspicion  ; 
the  calumnies  about  him  assume  larger  and  larger 
dimensions,  until  the  papal  biographers  of  the  later 
Middle  Ages  represent  his  whole  life  and  pontificate 
as  a  series  of  the  most  monstrous  crimes.  According 
to  them,  Sylvester  II.  entered  into  a  league  with  the 
devil,  and  exercised  his  pontifical  office  in  the  dcv^il's 
service  and  in  obedience  to  his  will. 

At  first  writers  were  content  with  the  timid 
criticism  that  Gerbert  had  devoted  himself  with  fiir 
too  much  zeal  to  profane  sciences,  and  on  that 
account  stood  30  high  in  the  favour  of  an  emperor 
with  such  a  thirst  for  knowledge  as  Otho  III.  This 
is  the  line  taken  by  the  chroniclers  Hermann  of 
Reichcnau  (died  A.D.  1054)  and  Ijcrnold,  Hugo  of 
I-'lcury  (A.D.  1109)  as  yet  knows  nothing  to  the 
discredit  of  Gcrbcrt ;  according  to  him  Gerbert 
attained  to  such  eminence  merely  by  means  of  his 

207 


268  SYLVESTER  IT. 

knowledge.  But  his  contemporary  Hugo  of  Fla- 
vigny,  whose  chronicle  ends  with  the  year  1102,  goes 
so  far  as  to  state  that  it  was  by  certain  sinister 
arts  (quibusdam  pra^stigiis)  that  Gerbcrt  contrived 
to  get  himself  elected  archbishop  of  Ravenna.  ^  The 
chronicler  does  not  appear  by  this  to  have  intended 
the  interposition  of  demoniacal  agencies  ;  in  which 
case  he  would  certainly  have  used  stronger  language. 
He  probably  meant  court  intrigues,  by  means  of 
which  the  Frenchman  won  the  favour  of  the  empress 
Adelaide,  who  at  that  time  held  Ravenna,  and  of  the 
emperor  Otho  ;  so  that  the  latter,  evading  an  open 
election,  simply  nominated  Gerbcrt. 

Some  years  later  we  have  Sicgcbcrt  of  Gcmblours 
(died  A.D.  1 1 13)  stating  that  some  did  not  reckon 
Gerbcrt  among  the  popes  at  all,  but  put  in  his  place 
a  (fictitious)  pope  Agapetus,  because  Gerbcrt  had 
been  addicted  to  the  practice  of  the  black  art,  and  had 
been  ^  struck  dead  by  the  devil. 

Siegebert  may  have  had  before  him  the  work  of 
Cardinal  Benno.  The  main  features  of  the  fable 
appear  first  in  the  writings  of  this  calumnious  enemy 
of  Gregory  VII.  Benno,  whose  work  must  have  been 
written  about  the  year  1099,  asserts  that  to  a  certain 
extent,  during  the  whole  of  the  eleventh  century,  a 

1  Pertz,  X.,  367.  2  Bouquet,  x.,  217. 


SYLVESTER  IT.  269 

school  of  black  magic  existed  in  Rome,  with  a  suc- 
cession of  adepts  in  this  art,  and  he  enumerates  them 
in  order.  The  most  important  personage  among 
them  is  archbishop  Laurentius  of  Amalfi,  who  at 
times  gave  utterance  to  prophecies,  and  could  also 
interpret  ^  the  notes  of  birds.  Theophylact  (Benedict 
IX.)  and  the  archpriest  John  Gratian  (Gregory  VI.) 
learnt  the  unlioly  art  from  Laurentius,  and  Hildebrand 
from  John  Gratian,  But  Laurentius  himself  was  the 
pupil  of  Gerbcrt,  who  was  the  first  to  bring  the  art  to 
Rome.  And  then  Benno  relates  the  story  which  has 
since  been  so  often  repeated,  and  which  became  so 
popular,  that  Satan  promised  his  disciple  Gerbert 
that  he  should  not  die  until  he  had  said  mass  in 
Jerusalem.  Gerbert  accordingly  believed  himself  to 
be  quite  safe ;  for  he  thought  only  of  the  city  of 
Jerusalem,  without  remembering  the  Jerusalem  church 
in  Rome.  The  message  of  death  came  to  him  as  he 
was  saying  mass  in  this  church,  and  he  thereupon 
caused  his  tongue  and  hand  to  be  cut  off,  by  way  of 
expiation. 

Benno  certainly  did  not  invent  this  fable  ;  he  found 
it  already  existing  in  Rome.  Before  him  there  is  no 
mention  of  it  anywhere,  -  and  it  evidently  sprang  up 

1  Vita  et  Gestc  Ilihlehrandi,  in  Brown,    Fascicul.,  i.,  83. 

2  Though  Dav.   Koolor    (^Gerberliu—im'uriia  iata  veUrum  quam 


270  SYLVESTER  II. 

nowhere  else  but  in  Rome,  just  like  the  fable  about 
Pope  Joan.  A  foreigner,  with  his,  at  that  time, 
unheard  of  and  incomprehensible  learning-,  who  had 
acquired  very  questionable  knowledge  among  those 
enemies  of  the  faith,  the  IMohammedans  in  Spain, 
may  well  have  inspired  the  Romans  with  something 
of  awe  and  horror.  At  a  time  in  which  scientific 
studies  had  all  but  died  out  in  Rome,  in  which  the 
Roman  Chair  was  under  the  control  of  aristocratic 
factions,  and  a  pope  without  powerful  relations  was 
scarcely  able  to  maintain  himself,  the  populace  could 
not  understand  how  a  man  like  Gcrbert,  of  the  very 
humblest  extraction,  by  mere  pre-eminence  of  intel- 
lectual culture,  should  have  raised  himself  to  the 
highest  dignity  in  Christendom,  That  could  not 
have  come  to  pass  by  purely  natural  means. 

Here  also,  as  in  the  fable  of  Pope  Joan,  a  verse 
plays  an  important  part    It  is  the  well-known  line — 

"  Scandit  ab  R  Gcrbertus  in  R,  fit  postea  Papa  vigcns  R." 

For  it  is  well  known  that  Gerbert  was  Hrst  arch- 
bishop   of   Rheims,    then    of    Ravenna,    and    finally 

rrcentiorem  scriptonm — lihcrntiiT.  Altorf.,  1T20,  p.  33)  Riipposes  tliis, 
n!i<l  Hock  (^Gcrbert  und lein  Jahrhundcrl,  s.  IGl)  cou.sidrr.s  it  tis  must 

'I'hi-  i;  •ii((lic1in<>F;  in  flic  Bouquet  rull.rtion,  x..  2)1,  ('crtiiinly  say 
"  Ant.  sifrniiUdS  JJorino  lialiuit.''  I  Luvc  nut  been  able,  huwcver,  to 
diseuver  Ibesu  pieilecessora. 


SYLVESTER  II.  271 

became  pope  of  Rome.  Originally  Gcrbert  himself 
was  said  to  have  composed  the  verse,  in  calm 
satisfaction  after  the  attainment  of  the  highest 
dignity.  ^  Next  the  verse  was  ascribed  to  him  as  a 
prophecy  respecting  his  future  destiny,  which  was 
eventually  fulfilled.  And  thus  the  way  was  prepared 
for  the  next  step,  which  was  to  make  the  verse  into  a 
prediction  or  promise  of  the  devil.  By  this  means 
Gcrbert  was  placed  in  the  power  of  Satan  ;  and  his 
wonderful  and,  at  that  time,  unexampled  success 
must  have  been  the  work  of  the  devil,  the  result  of  a 
compact  entered  into  with  him.  For  after  the  story 
of  Thcophilus,  which  arose  in  the  East  in  the  ninth 
century,  had  spread  in  the  West  also,  and  the  notion 
of  compacts  with  the  arch-enemy  (originally  quite 
foreign  to  the  Christian  world)  became  naturalised, 
there  was  nothing  to  hinder  even  a  pope  from  being 
represented  as  having  attained  to  his  dignity  by  such 
a  compact. 

And  thus  it  is  stated  in  Ordericus  Vitalis,  who 
wrote  his  chronicle  about  the  year  1151,  that  Gcrbert 
is  said  to  have  studied  as  a  scholar  with  a  demon, 
and  this  demon  gave  utterance  to  the  famous  verse. 
Soon  after,  however,  in  William  Godell,  who  wrote 
some  twenty  years   later,  Gcrbert  has  already  done 

1  So  nelgaUl,  in  Bouquet,  x.,  99. 


2/2  SYLVESTER  IT. 

formal  homage  to  Satan,  in  order  to  attain  the 
fulfilment  of  his  wishes  through  his  power.  William 
of  Malmesbury  tells  the  story  in  its  fully  developed 
form.  And  now  the  Dominicans  appropriate  it  ; 
Vincent  of  Beauvais,  Martinus  Polonus,  Leo  of 
Orvaeto,  Bernard  Guidonis  ;  also  Amalrich  Augerii. 
Petrarch  adheres  to  them  faithfully.  In  their  hands 
Sylvester  II.  becomes  a  successor  of  St.  Peter,  who 
early  in  life  sold  himself  to  the  devil,  and  by  his 
assistance  ascends  the  papal  throne.  As  pope  he  has 
daily  and  familiar  intercourse  with  Satan,  making 
him  his  counsellor.  But  when  the  entry  of  a  troop  of 
demons  into  the  church  warns  him  of  the  approach 
of  his  end,  he  publicly  confesses  his  sins  before  the 
people,  and  thereupon  has  one  limb  after  another 
hacked  off,  in  order  to  show  penitence  for  his 
enormities  by  means  of  such  an  agonising  death. 
Since  then  the  rattling  of  his  bones  in  the  grave 
is  wont  to  give  notice  of  the  approaching  death  of 
a  pope.  On  the  other  hand,  Dietrich  von  Niem 
(about  A.D.  1390)  was  not  far  from  the  truth  when  he 
said  that  the  Romans  had  detested  this  pope  on 
account  of  his  extraordinary  learning,  and  therefore 
had  accused  him  of  having  used  magic  ^  arts. 

1  J'rivilc(jia  et  Jura  Impeiii,  in  Schardii  Sylloge,  p.  832. 


PART  II. 

THE   PROPHETIC   SPIRIT  AND   THE  PRO- 
PHECIES OF  THE  CHRISTIAN  ERA. 


I.  Introduction. 

The  prophetic  spirit  of  classical  antiquity  was  na- 
tional and  patriotic,  and  hence  was  restricted  to  tlie 
interests  of  the  state  and  the  fortunes  of  war ;  it 
did  not  aim  to  unfold  the  vision  of  a  far-distant  fu- 
ture. The  Roman  Empire  did  indeed  represent  a 
great  community,  combining  many  nations, — the  Orbis 
Romanus  ;  but  this  Empire  was  content  with  the  pro- 
phetic announcement  that  it  was  destined  to  endless 
duration  ;  and,  in  fact,  the  imperial  era  did  not  pro- 
duce any  vaticinations  excepting  some  few  about  the 
life  and  death  of  one  or  another  emperor.  With  the 
introduction  of  Christianity  there  was  a  change. 
INIan's  sphere  of  vision  was  at  once  enlarged  ;  there 
was  a  general  sympathy  in  the  fate  of  all  those  na- 
tions which  now  confessed  the  same  faith  and  were 

knit  tocrether  as  members  of  the  one  rreat  Church. 

27a 


274  INTRODUCTION. 

From  this  time  onwards  the  destiny  of  the  great 
nations  that  took  the  lead  in  culture  and  history,  was 
inseparably  intertwined  with  the  progress  and  the  for- 
tunes of  the  universal  Church.  Every  one  of  these 
nations  led,  so  to  say,  a  double  life,  the  national, 
moving  in  its  peculiar  circle  of  ideas,  and  a  second 
life,  by  virtue  of  which  each  of  the  leading  Christian 
nations  fulfilled  the  mission  assigned  to  it  in  the 
great  Christian  commonwealth.  And  so  it  was  that 
in  the  middle  ages  Germans,  French  and  Italians 
had  the  consciousness  that  to  each  one  of  them  some 
special  function  and  gift  {charisma)  had  been  as- 
signed ;  that  each  of  them  upheld  one  of  the  three 
great  Christian  institutions,  the  Ii)iJ)criuin,  the  Saccr- 
dotluni,  and  the  Stiidiuvi. 

Upon  a  closer  view  of  the  prophetic  materials  found 
in  the  Christian  era,  it  is  at  once  evident  that  we  must 
distinguish  between  four  kinds  or  types  of  prophecies. 
For  besides  the  purely  religious  predictions,  there  arc 
also  the  dynastic,  then  the  national,  and  another  kind 
yet,  which  I  will  call  the  cosmo-political.  In  the  last  I 
include  those  that  relate  to  the  ■  Christian  Church  ;  be- 
cause, ever  since  the  founding  of  Christianity,  ecclesias- 
tical fortunes  and  changes  have  in  general  been  closely 
connected  with  the  great  progressive  development  of 
the  world's  history.     For  it  is  a  characteristic  of  these 


INTRODUCTION.  275 

ecclesiastical  prophecies,  that  they  usually  relate  to  ap- 
proaching ruptures,  or  to  the  healing  of  divisions  already 
existing,  or  to  divine  judgments  on  account  of  prevalent 
ecclesiastical  corruptions,  deeply  lamented  ;  and  they 
announce  the  coming  of  some  great  and  longed-for 
reformation  of  the  Church,  or  a  reunion  of  the  divi- 
sions in  the  Christian  world.  Single  monarchies  or 
whole  nations  are  designated  as  the  chosen  instru- 
ments of  these  ecclesiastical  changes  ;  or,  again,  such 
changes  are  regarded  as  the  causes  of  social  and  po- 
litical catastrophes  and  revolutions ;  and,  accordingly, 
events  are  foretold,  which  belong  partly  to  the  poli- 
tical, and  partly  to  the  ecclesiastical  sphere,  some- 
times equally  to  both.  Thus  it  happens,  that  those 
prophecies  which  relate  to  the  condition  of  the  world, 
or  to  the  destiny  of  the  great  civilized  nations,  always 
have  a  religious  side  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  not 
possible  to  predict  momentous  and  deeply  penetra- 
ting events  and  revolutions  in  the  religious  sphere, 
without  at  the  same  time  holding  up  to  view  a  corres- 
ponding reshaping  of  political  affairs,  related  to  the 
former  as  the  effect  to  the  cause. 

Accordingly,  the  vaticinations  current  in  the  Ciu-is- 
tian  era  betray  a  three-fold  origin.  Sometimes  they 
are,  as  it  were,  self-originated  products  of  a  certain 
state  or  tendency  of  things,  shaped  without  conscious 


276  INTRODUCTION. 

intention,  and  without  the  definite  authorship  of  any 
one  person.  But  we  frequently  find  such  as  have  the 
appearance  of  a  deliberate  intention  to  subserve  some 
special  interest.  In  fine,  there  are  also  vaticinations 
which  originate  from  the  conjectures  or  genial  insight 
of  some  individual,  who,  having  a  correct  understand- 
ing of  the  present,  forms  conclusions  about  the  pheno- 
mena of  the  future  in  accordance  with  the  laws  of 
causal  connection,  and  boldly  proclaims  these  as  facts. 
The  result  stamps  such  instances  with  the  character 
of  prophetic  announcements.  Some  examples  will 
explain  and  confirm  this  general  view  and  these  dis- 
tinctions. 

As  the  historian  is  a  prophet  looking  behind,  so  the 
prophet  is  often  but  a  historian  gazing  backwards,  and 
announcing  events  that  have  already  occurred  as 
future.  This  happens,  for  instance,  when  future  facts 
are  to  be  corroborated  by  the  past ;  as  is  the  case  in 
the  well-known  Lehnin  prophecy.  ^     This  also  occurs 

1  [See  Gicseler,  die  Lohninscho  ■Wcissagimc:  gcgcn  das  TTaxis  Ho- 
hcnzollcrn,  als  cin  Gcdicht  des  Abtes  von  Iluysburg  Nioolaus  von 
Zitzwitz  alls  dem  Jalire  1692  nachgcwieson,  cikl.irt  iind  in 
Hinsicht  auf  Vcranlassung  iind  Zweck  bclcuclitct.  Erfurt,  1849.  It 
is  directed  against  the  House  of  Ilolicnzollern  ;  but  its  autliorsliip  is 
contested.  H.  Sehmidt  (Berlin  1820)  ascribes  it  to  Provost  Fromm 
of  Berlin,  wlio in  1C67  went  over  to  the  Catholic  Church.  Giese- 
brecht  and  Gieseler,  with  more  probability,  assign  it  to  Chr.  Heinr, 
Delven.  It  was  first  published  iu  1723  in  G.  P.  bchulz'a  Gclehrtca 
Preussen,  Theil  2.  II  ii.  ^.J 


INTRODUCTION.  i;/ 

in  those  cases  where,  under  the  protecting  form  of 
prophecy,  monarchs,  or  governments,  or  ecclesiastical 
afTairs  aire  denounced,  warnings  are  uttered,  and  a 
change  in  the  course  and  destiny  of  a  state  is  looked 
for.  An  example  of  this  genus  is  the  poem  upon  the 
government  of  Edward  III,  under  the  name  of  John  of 
Bridlington  (written  about  1370),  with  a  gloss  in 
prose,  in  which  the  author  clothes  in  the  costume  of 
prophecy  what  he  did  not  dare  to  utter  in  open 
speech, — his  denunciation  of  the  infamous  abuses  and 
prostitutions  which  abounded,  ^ 

This,  too,  was  well  understood  in  ancient  as  well 
as  modern  times,  that  a  prophecy  can  be  an  effectual 
political  agency,  and  that  an  event,  whose  occurrence 
is  desired,  can  be  more  easily  brought  about  if  it  be 
foretold.  When  Queen  Christina  wished  to  become 
Queen  of  Poland,  she  gave  the  order  that  a  prophecy 
with  reference  to  it  should  be  adroitly  spread  abroad 
by  a  monk,  ^  When  Cromwell  designed  to  bring 
about  certain  events,  he  had  them  put  beforehand  into 
the  Almanac,  whose  astrologer  thus  attained  high 
consideration.     When    William   of  Orange   and    his 

1  Soe  Th.  Wriglit,  Political  Poems  and  Songs  relative  to  English 
History,  Vol.  i.  London,  1859. 

2  '•  Voiis  pourrioz  aussi  ooriro  an  Ff'-ro  (>T.  X.)  qn"il  puLlio  adroi- 
t'-mcnt  la  prophetic/'  So  it  n-ads  in  1i"r  1  *fpr  of  \\\o  year  ioo'J, 
found  ill  Arkunlioitz,  JJcm  ■ires  co/icer/iuiu  Curisiitie,  iii,  330. 


278  INTRODUCTION, 

party  in  England  had  determined  upon  the  overthrow 
of  King  James  II.  there  appeared,  in  March  i6SS,  a 
printed  Jettcr  of  a  so-called  Quaker,  in  which  it  was 
reported  that  the  Spirit  had  revealed  it  to  an  illumin- 
ated member  of  his  Society,  that  next  October  a 
great  change  would  come  over  the  kingdom,  and  that 
the  month  after  William  would  come  over  the  sea. 
The  prophet  was  at  fault  only  about  a  couple  of 
weeks,  everything  else  came  to  pass.  ^  As  far  back 
as  the  thirteenth  century  such  craft  was  applied  with 
good  success.  When  the  popes  had  determined  to 
uproot  the  Ilohenstaufcn  imperial  house,  and  allow 
none  of  its  offspring  to  attain  cither  the  German  or 
Sicilian  crown,  there  appeared  in  the  year  1256  a  pro- 
phecy in  Latin  verses,  under  the  name  of.  Cardinal 
Albius, — probably  the  Cardinal-Bishop  of  Albano. 
In  this,  after  a  general  description  of  a  chaotic  period 
and  of  the  oppression  of  the  Church,  it  was  an- 
nounced :  "  Suddenly  and  unexpectedly  a  deliverer, 
a  new  king,  will  appear,  who  for  the  sake  of  the 
honor  of  the  mother  (the  Roman  See)  will  restrain 
the  South,  crush  the  Sicilians  and  Frederick's  race, 
and  destroy  all  the  works  of  the  emperor  Frederick 
and  his  sons  and  adherents.  Besides  this  he  will  also 
make  the  perverse  Romans  bow  under  the  yoke  of  the 

1  Uayle,  CEuvrcs,  iii,  249. 


INTRODUCTION.  279 

Pope."  In  short,  he  will  bring  about  just  what  the  papal 
court  at  that  time  wished  and  needed.  The  whole 
sounded  like  a  programme,  written  with  prophetic 
elevation,  of  the  negotiations  about  the  Sicilian  throne, 
which  Alexander  IV.  was  then  secretly  carrying  on 
with  the  English  prince  Edmund;  and  it  was  intended 
to  prepare  the  way  for  the  spoliation.  To  prevent  the 
Italians  from  expecting,  according  to  the  custom, 
largesses  of  gold  from  the  future  king,  the  prophecy 
did  not  forget  to  add,  that  the  deliverer  sent  from 
heaven,  though  rich  in- virtue,  was  poor  in  money.  ^ 

As  an  example  o{  dynastic  prophecy,  I  may  mention 
the  prophetic  vision  which  the  Thuringian  Basiiui, 
mother  of  Clovis,  showed  on  the  bridal  night  to  her 
spouse  Childcric,  king  of  the  Franks.  At  her  in- 
stance he  went  out  from  the  sleeping  chamber  three 
times  during  the  night.  The  first  time  he  saw  a  lion, 
a  unicorn  and  a  leopard.  The  second  time  he  was 
shown  bears  and  wolves.  The  third  time  he  saw 
dogs  and  smaller  animals  biting  about.  The  lion, 
said  Basina  to  him,  represents  our  son  Clovis  :  his  sons 
will  be  strong  like  the  leopard  and  unicorn, — that  is 
Theodcric,  Chlodomir,  Childcbert,  and  Clotair.    From 

1  The  prophecy  is  printed  in  Lami's  a<l<!i(iona  to  the  Clironicnn 
rontificimi  Lcouis  Uibovctaui,  in  hifi  jUtiicice  Erudilorum,  1V37, 
p.  323. 


28o  INTRODUCTION. 

them  others  will  be  born,  strong  and  ravenous  as  bears 
and  wolves, — Charibert  and  Childeric  and  the  rest  to 
Clotair  II.  At  last  follow  the  weak  IMerovingians 
in  the  anarchical  times  preceding  the  change  of  dy- 
nasty. This  prophecy  is  found  as  early  as  a  codex  of 
Fredegar,  reaching  back  to  the  first  part  of  the  eighth 
century ;  consequently,  before  the  accession  of  the 
Carlovingians  to  the  throne.  The  intention  of  pre- 
paring for  this  change  shines  out  in  the  ironical  de- 
claration of  Basina :  "  These  dog-like  kings  will  be 
*'  the  pillars  of  this  empire  !  " 

*  A  kind  of  dynastic  prophecy,  whose  origin  Is  easily 
detected,  was  current  in  England  as  a  popular  rhyme, 
passing  from  moutli  to  mouth  in  the  time  of  Queen 
Elizabeth,  and  even  under  James  I. : 

*'  When  Hcnipe  is  spun,  England's  done."  i 

The  word  "  Hempe "  means  the  five  monarchs  of 
the  Tudor  dynasty,  Henry  VIII.  Edward  VI.  Mary 
with  her  husband  Philip,  and  Elizabeth  ;  because  the 
five  letters  of  this  word  are  the  first  letters  of  these 
names.  This  prophetic  sa}'ing  undoubtedly  origin- 
ated in  a  popular  way  from  the  feeling  that,  as  Eliza- 

1  Lord  r.acon  says  in  liis  Essays  (Works,  T.oiid.  ISTiG,  i,  2'.il),  it 
was  K'Hi^rally  brliivnl  tliat  ;d'ti  r  the  d.  atli  of  I'.li/al).  tli  "  l-lii.i^land 
slmuld  <'oiiic  to  utter  (.-oiiriision.''  A  tUllilni'iit  ot'tliis  prophecy  was 
found  in  tli'-  ('i\il  \\\u>,  wLitli,  iiu'.M.v<.r,  hiukc  out  mure  than  I'urty 
ytiuri  al'terwurd. 


INTRODUCTION.  281 

bctli  had  no  children,  at  her  death  cither  a  war  of 
succession  would  break  out,  or  a  stranger,  the  Scottish 
king,  more  feared  than  desired,  would  ascend  the 
throne. 

Among  these  dynastic  prophecies  we  may  also  reckon 
the  prognostications  as  to  the  succession  of  the 
popes,  two  of  which  have  attained  special  celebrity. 
In  the  earlier  part  of  the  fourteenth  century  there 
was  spread  abroad,  under  the  name  of  Joachim,  a 
description  with  allegorical  figures,  of  the  popes  from 
Nicolas  III.  to  Clement  V.,  which  designated  each 
one  of  these  popes  by  a  few,  sliort,  pithy  words,  ex- 
pressing in  a  symbolical  way  the  chief  events  of  his 
reign.  Like  the  other  spurious  Joachimitc  writings 
this  one,  too,  proceeded  from  the  bosom  of  the  Fran- 
ciscan order,  that  section  of  them  called  the  Spirituals 
or  Zealots,  who  were  here  vci'cd  under  the  name  of 
the  "  Dove,"  given  to  their  order.  That  a  description 
like  this,  which  painted  most  of  the  popes  of  that  pe- 
riod in  so  black  colors,  charging  them  with  serious 
transgressions, — Celestinc  V.  alone  is  judged  more 
mildly — and  making  them  appear  to  be  the  despots 
of  the  Church,  could  find  so  great  sympathy  and  at- 
tain such  repute,  is  a  remarkable  sign  of  the  revolu- 
tion V.  hich  was  then  going  on  in  the  sentiments  of  the 
Italians.     As  early  as  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 


282  INTRODUCTION. 

century,  in  the  chronicles  of  the  Bologncse  Dominican, 
Pipin,  these  assumed  oracles  and  emblems  are  indivi- 
dually mentioned  and  described  ;  afterwards  less 
skilful  hands  continued  them  ;  a  part  still  going  under 
the  name  of  Joachim,  and  a  part  under  the  fictitious 
name  of  a  bishop,  Anselm  of  Marsica.  But  while  the 
earlier  ones,  from  Nicolas  III.  to  Clement  V.,  pre-sup- 
posing  the  stand-point  of  the  author,  are  appropriate, 
and  easily  conceivable,  the  later  ones,  those  actually 
imagined  before  the  event,  rapidly  degenerate  into 
unintelligible  phrases  and  commonplaces  that  mean 
nothing.  ^ 

This  fiction  long  ago  died  out ;  but  another  one  of 
later  origin  still  has  consideration  and  is  reverenced  by 
many  persons.  It  is  w-holly  difforcnt  from  the  incisive 
criticism  of  the  Joachimite  vaticinations,  for  it  docs 
not  delineate  the  moral  character  of  the  popes  or 
their  mode  of  administering  ecclesiastical  affairs,  but 
it  attempts  to  make  each  one  of  them  known  by  one 
or  two  words,  descril:)ing  some  circumstance  in  his  life, 

1  [On  Joachim's  prophecies,  rco  furtlicr,  Frederick,  in  Zcitschri/t 
far  wissens'-.h'ifUiche  TlUologie,  Bdo.  iii,  iv,  1851)  ;  X.  Koussolot, 
llistoire  de  PEvanjile  dierncl,  etc.  Paris,  18G1  ;  Gieseler,  Church  His- 
tory (Xcw-York  ed.),  vol.  ii,  pp.  43?>-43r)  ;  llinan,  in  tlic  Revue  des 
JJeiix  Monde:,  J\i]y,  ]HGG  ;  II;i;,'enbacIi's  History  of  Doctrines  (Xiw- 
York  ed.),  i,  42.3,  -lOTj ;  ii,  1 1  <».  For  tlie  literature  coiiii)are  Aolfs 
and  Queri»,  London,  iic[)i,  i8ij'2,  i>^.  lSl-3  ;  and  Wattb'  Hibl.  JJri' 
tann.  II.  B.  tj.j 


INTRODUCTION.  2S3 

or  alluding  to  some  single  event  in  his  career.  Mala- 
chias,  an  Irish  bishop  of  the  twelfth  century,  well 
known  by  St.  Bernard's  biography  of  him,  was  chosen 
as  the  sponsor  for  these  vaticinations,  which  begin 
with  Celestinc  II.  in  1143.  As  far  down  as  1590 
(Urban  VII.),  they  are  to  the  point,  or  admit  an  inter- 
pretation not  altogether  forced.  The  work  was  com- 
pleted in  1590,  to  promote  the  election  of  Cardinal 
Simoncclli,  of  Orvieto.  He  was  to  be  the  successor 
of.  Urban  ;  and  is  described  by  the  words,  Dc  antiqui- 
tatc  nrbis  {Orvieto,  Urbs  veins).  The  mottoes  relating 
to  the  following  popes  are  for  the  most  part  interpreted 
in  an  insipid  and  ridiculous  manner.  13ut  since,  from 
time  to  time,  one  or  another  of  these  prognostications 
sccniL-d  to  be  applicable,  they  were  printed  and  used 
in  numberless  editions,  and  even  now  do  not  lack 
believers.  Thus,  in  the  case  of  Pius  VI.,  the  words 
f'enj^rimis  apostoliens,  and  in  the  case  of  Pius  IX.,  the 
phrase  crux  de  eriiee,  bear  a  convenient  sense  ;  while, 
on  the  other  hand,  the  aqiiila  rapax,  for  Pius  VII., 
resists  all  exegesis. 

One  prophecy,  which,  at  the  time  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, exerted  a  powerful  influence  upon  men's  opinions, 
and  so  upon  the  course  of  events,  was  indeed  ficti- 
tious ;  but  still  it  originated  in  a  very  natural  way  and 
without  design.     IIuss  was  reported  to  have  said  at 


284  INTRODUCTION. 

the  stake :  "  To  day  you  burn  a  goose  "  (this  is  the 
Bohemian  meaning  of  his  name),  "  but  from  my  ashes 
a  swan  will  arise,  whom  you  will  not  be  able  to 
burn."  1  Luther,  who  first  refers  to  this  and  expressly 
applies  it  to  himself,  most  certainly  did  not  invent 
the  narrative.  The  occasion  of  it  was  a  passage  in  a 
letter  of  Huss  to  the  citizens  of  Prague,  written  at 
Constance :  "  The  goose,  a  tame  animal  that  cannot 
fly  high,  has  not  rent  its  fetters  ;  but  other  birds, 
which  soar  aloft  in  upward  flight  by  means  of  the 
divine  word  and  its  life,  will  bring  to  naught  all  their 
malice."  ^  And  to  this  is  to  be  added,  that  his  friend 
and  disciple,  Jerome  of  Prague,  actually  challenged 
those  that  condemned  him,  to  appear  after  a  hundred 
years  before  the  judgment  seat  of  God.  ^ 

No  less  clear  an  invention  is  the  famous  vision  and 
prophecy  ascribed  to  Cazotte,  about  the  horrors  of  the 
PVench  Revolution,  which  La  Ilarpe  has  described  in 
so  dramatic  a  way,  and  of  whicii  he  was  the  un- 
doubted author.  Put,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  true  that, 
fourteen  years  before  the  breaking  out  of  the  Revo- 
lution, a  famous  preacher,  Beauregard,  declared  in  the 
pulpit  of  Notre-Dame  :  "  The  temples  of  God  will  be 

1  <ii)cra,  cd.  AltenlxTff,  v,  590  ;  viii,  80 1;  ix,  1502. 

2  Ili-t.  ct  Moiitiuicntu  Joh.  IIus  ct  HiLVoyiii  (Niirnburg,  1715)  i, 
12). 

3  Nuriutio  do  Mug.  llicruuymo,  iu  the  Monumenta,  ii,  531. 


INTRODUCTION.  285 

plundered  and  devastated,  His  festivals  abolished,  His 
name  blasphemed,  His  service  despised.  Yes  :  what 
do  I  hear  ?  what  do  I  see  ?  Instead  of  hymns  in  praise 
of  God,  jovial  and  profane  songs  will  here  be  sung ; 
and  Venus  herself,  the  goddess  of  the  heathen,  will 
have  the  audacity  here  to  take  the  place  of  the  living 
God,  to  sit  at  the  altar,  and  receive  the  homage  of  her 
true  worshippers,"  All  this  actually  occurred  some 
years  later,  and  in  the  very  church  in  which  the  pro- 
phetic words  were  uttered.  Whoever  knows  the  con- 
dition of  Paris  at  that  time,  and  considers,  for  example, 
what  Walpolc  said  of  it  in  his  letters,  can  veiy  well 
understand  how  a  man  like  Beauregard,  whose  vision 
penetrated  the  depths  of  the  abyss  of  the  reigning 
corruption,  might  very  well  prognosticate  these  things, 
which  aftenvards  came  to  light  as  the  manifestations 
of  a  spirit  that  for  a  long  time  had  been  at  work, 
although  until  then  only  in  a  noiseless  way. 


II.   PropJictic  Anticipations  in   the  Early  Mediaeval 
Tiines  :  Antichrist,  and  the  E7id  of  the  World. 

To  estimate  aright  the  prime  characteristics  of  the 
reh'gious  and  poHtical  prophecies  of  the  middle  ages, 
we  must  go  back  to  the  carhcr  times  of  the  Church. 
The  first  christians  succeeded  to  an  inheritance  trans- 
mitted to  them  by  the  Alexandrian  Jews  with  their 
Hellenic  culture  ;  for  the  latter  had  already  fashioned 
Sibylline  prophecies,  which  held  out  the  prospect  of  a 
final  victory  of  Judaism  over  heathenism,  and  its  ele- 
vation into  a  religion  for  the  v/orld.  These  Sibylline- 
Jewish  books  or  fragments  were  current  in  the  last 
century  before  Christ,  and  again  in  the  first  and  sec- 
ond centuries  after  Christ.  To  them  were  soon 
added  Christian  vaticinations,  someof  which  were  held 
in  reverence  by  the  heathen  and  by  a  part  of  the 
Christians,  who  took  them  under  their  protection  or 
made  use  of  them  as  genuine,  giving  to  them  the  name 
of  Sibyllists,  as,  for  example,  they  were  called  by  the 
philosopher  Celsus.  To  the  Roman  authorities, 
however,  ft  did  not  seem  a  matter  of  inchTfcrcnce  to 
spread  aljroad  expectations  of  an  approaching  de- 
struction of  the  Roman  Empire  and  of  the  abolition  of 


PROPHETIC  ANTICIPA  TIONS.       287 

the  religion  of  the  state;  and  so  they  forbade,  under 
penalty  of  death,  the  reading  of  these  books  or  "  leaves." 
As  long  as  the  Roman  Empire  existed  in  the  west, 
down  to  the  period  of  the  great  migration  of  the  na- 
tions, there  was  no  real  ground  for  independent  pro- 
phecies. The  christian  representations  with  respect 
to  the  future  were  wholly  controlled  by  their  prophetic 
book,  the  Apocalypse.  While  the  heathen  Romans 
thought  that  their  empire  was  sure  of  endless  dura- 
tion, and  the  eternity  of  Rome  was,  so  to  speak,  an 
official  dogma,  the  Christians,  on  the  other  hand,  knew 
that  Rome,  drunken  with  the  blood  of  christian  mar- 
tyrs, must  fall,  that  the  Roman  secular  power  would 
come  to  an  end.  Hence  the  vaticinations  which  they 
framed  had  reference,  first  of  all,  to  this  expected  de- 
struction of  the  Roman  Empire,  and  were  connected 
with  the  interpretation  of  the  prophetic  Apocal}-pse 
without  further  details.  The  Christians  of  those  early 
centuries  had  no  well-defined  idea  that  a  new  christian 
order  of  things,  a  circle  of  christian  states,  would 
spring  up  from  the  ruins  of  the  empire.  They  were 
not  in  a  condition  to  look  beyond  the  Roman  horizon, 
and  to  anticipate  the  still  slumbering  powers  of  bar- 
baric nations,  who  appeared  to  them  to  be  only  the 
instruments  and  forces  of  devastation.  And  so  they 
cherished  the  belief  that  the  destruction  of  the  Roman 


288       PROPHETIC  ANTICIPA  TIONS. 

Empire  would  also  be  the  end  of  the  present  order  of 
the  world  ;  or,  to  speak  more  exactly,  that  the  begin- 
ning of  the  end  had  come.  They  thought,  in  fact, 
that  Rome  itself  with  its  universal  power  was  still 
spared,  so  that  the  catastrophe  of  the  end  of  the  world 
might  be  kept  in  abeyance.  Lactantius  says  :  "  She, 
Rome,  is  the  city  which  still  holds  and  bears  all." 
They  were  all  the  more  confirmed  in  this  represent- 
ation by  an  incorrect  interpretation  of  the  passage  in 
Paul's  second  epistle  to  the  Thessalonians,  ii,  7, 
(rendering  KaTix^^v,  qui  taict,  he  that  holdcth  on),  under- 
standing by  it  the  Roman  Empire,  whose  overthrow 
was  to  be  followed  by  the  manifestation  of  "  the  Man 
of  sin,"  and  soon  after  by  the  end  of  the  world. 

And  so  in  the  christian  world,  until  the  heart  of  the 
middle  ages,  there  were  no  proper  prophecies  of  gen- 
eral significance  and  weight.  The  prophetic  incli- 
nation natural  to  man  rested  satisfied  with  conjectures 
about  the  great  enemy  of  Christianity,  the  Antichrist, 
who  was  expected  by  every  one  in  cast  and  west  to 
be  a  Jew  and  the  restorer  of  Jewish  dominion.  Much 
also  was  said  about  the  approaching  end  of  the  world. 
The  formula  of  the  tenth  century,  "  appropinquante 
mundi  tcrmino,"  is  well  known.  But  this  was  to  be 
preceded  by  the  manifestation  of  Antichrist,  whose 
dominion  was  to  endure  three  and  a  half  years.   With 


PROPHETIC  ANTICIPA  TIONS.       289 

him  men's  imaginations  were  chiefly  busy,  yet 
still  within  the  bounds  traced  by  the  old  tradition. 
He  was  to  be  of  Jewish  stock  ;  in  the  far  cast,  in 
Mohammedan  surroundings,  he  was  to  appear  as  a 
victorious  general  and  a  devastator,  and  fill  the  world 
with  the  terror  of  his  name.  So  long  then  as  no  per- 
sonage appeared,  who  could  be  described  as  a 
Jewish  prophet  and  mighty  tyrant,  nothing  could  be 
said  of  an  immediate  coming  of  the  end  of  the  world. 
The  expectation  sometimes  became  so  impatient,  that 
he  was  represented  as  already  living,  though  still 
in  secrecy,  just  delaying  his  appearance.  But  farther 
than  this  they  could  not  go;  and  thus  the  great  Anti- 
christ, the  apostasy  he  was  to  effect,  his  victory  and 
his  bloody  though  short  dominion, — all  this  remained 
a  phenomenon  constantly  expected,  constantly  feared, 
but  never  occurring,  though  his  course  was  minutely 
described,  and  his  acts  and  destiny  recounted  and 
imaged  forth.  But  in  every  century  there  were  fore- 
runners to  prepare  the  way  for  the  great  terror  ;  that 
is,  every  party  regularly  accused  its  opponents  of 
being  such  preparatory  messengers  and  servants,,  but 
the  lord  of  these  servants  showed  himself  never  and 
nowhere.  It  was  indeed  from  time  to  time  pro- 
claimed :  He  is  already  born,  or  he  is  now  nine  or  ten 
years  old  ;  as,  for  example,   St.   Martin,    Bishop  of 

25 


290       PR  OP  HE  TIC  A  NTICIPA  TIOXS. 

Tours,  about  the  year  3S0,  gave  out  that  the  Anti- 
christ was  then  Hving,  though  still  a  boy.  Towards 
the  end  of  the  eleventh  century,  about  1080,  Bishop 
Ranieri  of  Florence  was  entirely  sure  that  Antichrist 
was  born  ;  and  some  decennia  later  Archbishop  Nor- 
bert  of  Magdeburg  gave  the  same  assurance  to  St. 
Bernard.  The  famous  popular  preacher,  Vincens 
Ferrer,  thought  that  he  had  the  most  exact  informa- 
tion :  the  birth  of  the  great  foe  of  Christianity  took 
place  in  1403.  Vincens  in  1312  wrote  to  Pope  Bene- 
dict XIII.  that  the  Antichrist  was  already  nine  years 
old,  that  this  had  been  revealed  at  the  same  time  to 
many  persons,  and  that  there  was  consequently  an 
urgent  necessity  of  proclaiming  it  to  the  world,  "  so 
that  the  faithful  might  be  prepared  for  the  fearful 
battle  immediately  impending."  ^ 

Baring-Gould,  in  his  Curious  Myths  of  the  JiTiddle 
Ages  (London,  1869),  speaks  thus  of  the  literature 
respecting  the  Antichrist  : 

"  The  literature  connected  with  Antichrist  is  volu- 

1  In 'Mii\\Qn(\a.,  De  Antichristo,  i,  119.  [On  Antichrist,  sec  the  ar- 
ticle in  Smitli's  Dictionary  of  the  Bibhi,  American  edition  ;  Moses 
Stuart,  Commentary  on  the  Apocalypse  ;  Elliott,  on  Apocal.  Jowett, 
on  "  Man  of  ^^in,"  in  his  Epistles  of  St.  Paul;  Schnei  kcnhiirgcr,  in 
Jalirl).  f.  dciitsclie  Theologie,  1359;  Jlaitla!i'!,  Prophecies  respecting 
Anticlirist,  Lend.  1830  ;  Knight,  I.ectiires  on  Antichrift,  Lond.  ]855. 
J.  11.  Newman,  Patristic  Idea  of  Antichrist,  in  iiis  vommo  "  Dis- 
cour.se>  and  Arguments",  London,  1872.     II.  B.  S.] 


PR  OPHE  TIC  A  NTICIPA  TIONS.       29 1 

minous.  I  need  only  specify  some  of  the  most  curious 
works  which  have  appeared  on  the  subject,  St. 
Hippolytus  and  Rabanus  Maurus  have  been  ah-cady 
alluded  to.  Commodianus  wrote  "  Carmen  Apologe- 
ticum  adversus  Gentes,"  which  has  been  published  by 
Dom  Pitra  in  his  "  Spicilcgium  Solesmensc,"  with  an 
introduction  containing  Jewish  and  Christian  tradi- 
tions relating  to  Antichrist.  *  "  Dc  Turpissima  Con- 
ccptione,  Nativitate,  et  aliis  Prassagiis  Diabolicis 
iliius  Turpissimi  Hominis  Antichristi,"  is  the  title  of  a 
strange  little  volume,  published  by  Lenoir  in  A.  D. 
1500,  containing  rude  yet  characteristic  woodcuts 
representing  the  birth,  life  and  death  of  the  Man  of 
Sin,  each  picture  accompanied  by  French  verses  in 
explanation.  An  equally  remarkable  illustrated  work 
on  Antichrist,  is  the  famous  "  Liber  dc  Antichristo," 
a  block  book  of  an  early  date.  It  is  in  twenty-seven 
folios,  and  is  excessively  rare.  Dibdin  has  reproduced 
three  of  the  plates  in  his  "  Bibliothcca  Spcnscriana," 
and  Falckenstein  has  given  full  details  of  the  work  in 
his  "  Geschichte  dcr  Buchdruckerkunst." 

[There  is  an  Easter  miracle-play  of  the  twelfth 
century,  still  extant,  the  subject  of  which  is  the  "  Life 

1  [The  best  edition  of  this  recently  discovered  work  of  Commo- 
dianus is  by  H.  R  nsch,  in  the  Zeiucknjtf.  ILst.  Hieologie,  1872,  < 
163-303,  with  a  revised  text.  H.  B.  S.] 


292       PROPHETIC  ANTICIPATIONS. 

and  Death  of  Antichrist."  More  curious  still  is  the 
"  Farce  de  I'Antechrist  et  de  trois  Femmes,"  a  compo- 
sition of  the  sixteenth  century,  when  that  mysterious 
personage  occupied  all  brains.  The  farce  consists  in 
a  sccn/^  at  a  fishstall,  with  three  good  ladies  quarrel- 
ling ov'er  some  fish.  Antichrist  steps  in — for  no 
particular  reason  that  one  can  see — upsets  fish  and 
fish-woman,  sets  them  fighting,  and  skips  off  the  stage. 
The  best  book  on  Antichrist,  and  that  most  full  of 
learning  and  judgment,  is  Malvcnda's  great  work  in 
two  folio  volumes,  "  De  Antichristo,  libri  XII."  Lyons, 
1647."     H.  B.  S.] 


^^g^m 


^^^ 


III.  National  Prophecies. 

Meanwhile,  from  early  times,  prophecies  of  another 
type  were  fashioned  on  the  basis  of  Nationalities. 
In  general  it  may  be  maintained,  that  the  prophetic 
impulse,  so  far  as  it  is  a  natural  outgrowth  and  not 
conditioned  by  religious  prescriptions,  is  the  product 
of  widely  diffused  expectations,  cherished  by  whole 
nations,  embodying  their  desires  or  fears.  When  a 
large  mass  of  people  long  for  something  which  cannot 
at  once  be  brought  about  by  their  own  powers,  or 
which  appears  to  them  to  be  the  probable  consequence 
of  previous  events  and  present  circumstances,  this  na- 
turally clothes  itself  among  the  imaginative  races  in 
the  drapery  of  prophecy. 

The  consciousness  of  guilt  also  readily  takes  the 
prophetic  form.  A  nation  whose  moral  standard,  and 
consequently  whose  self-knowledge,  has  not  yet  per- 
ished, in  case  it  becomes  conscious  of  deep  degeneracy 
and  wide-spread  moral  corruption,  is  not  able  to  shut 
out  the  conviction  that  the  punishment  for  this  degra- 
dation must  come  sooner  or  later,  but  inevitably. 
When  the  anticipation  of  such  a  judgment  assumes  a 
concrete,  so  to  say  a  plastic,  form,  as  is  customary  at 

293 


294  NATIONAL  PROPHECIES. 

certain  stages  of  culture,  it  at  o"ce  takes  the  shape  of 
prophecy,  confidently  proclaiming  the  special  mode  of 
chastisement,  the  impending  national  catastrophes, 
and  also  even  the  avenging  instruments.  What  thus 
ho'.ds  true  of  nations  is  also  applicable  to  single  orders, 
to  corporations  and  institutions. 

When  a  people  is  oppressed  by  foreign  violence,  or 
driven  from  its  earlier  possessions,  the  universal  long- 
ing to  be  freed  from  this  yoke  takes  the  form  of  a 
prognostication.  Such  prophecies  are  frequently  the 
product,  not  of  an  individual,  but  of  many  persons  ;  at 
least  they  cannot  be  traced  back  to  any  one  individual. 
But  at  the  same  time  a  prophecy  must  not  be  without 
a  name, — unlike  a  popular  song  the  author  of  which 
no  one  asks  for.  A  people  may  not  trouble  itself 
about  the  poet,  but  it  has  a  deep  interest  in  being  able 
to  name  the  prophet.  Where  this  is  wanting  it  is  al- 
ways invented,  and  thus,  wholly  apart  from  conscious 
fiction,  we  find  in  the  history  of  modern  prophecies 
so  many  mythical  personalities  or  names  without  an 

owner  (I'^a  irpoffWTo). 

The  very  first  one  whom  we  have  here  to  mention 
is  just  such  a  mythical  personage.  Merlin  is  really  the 
British  Orpheus :  his  name  in  the  early  part  of  the 
middle  ages  was  celebrated  above  all  others,  and  he 
was  made  the  father  of  very  many  prophecies  which 
went  into  fulfilment. 


NATIONAL  PROPHECIES.  295 

It  is  still  a  contested  question  whether  there  was 
ever  a  historical  personage  actually  bearing  this  name. 
Nash,  in  his  introduction  to  the  English  "  Merlin,"  a 
romance  of  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  has 
lately  endeav^ored  to  show,  against  Villemarque,  that 
^lerlin  or  Ambrosius  is  a  pure  product  of  fancy,  and 
that  that  British  Merlin,  whom  the  chronicles  transfer  to 
the  end  of  the  fifth  or  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, never  existed.  At  any  rate,  he  became  later  the 
hero  of  a  whole  round  of  legends  which  grew  up  in  the 
heart  of  the  mediaeval  literature  ;  and  here  he  appears, 
not  as  a  bard,  which  Stephens^  says  he  was  never 
called,  but  as  a  prophet,  an  enchanter  and  the  son  of 
a  demon. 

By  the  constant  progress  and  pressure  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  the  native  Britons  or  Cymri  were  pent  up, 
from  the  sixth  century,  in  the  western  parts  of  the 
island,  where  they  maintained  a  certain  independence 
in  some  small  states.  In  the  twelfth  century  it  was 
noticed  that  they  were  very  much  absorbed  in  vatici- 
nations :  numerous  prophetic  declarations  were  passing 
from  mouth  to  mouth.  They  were  the  feebler  stock, 
ever  imperilled  by  a  strong  and  superior  neighbour ; 
the  consciousness  of  this  state  of  things  and  the  hope 

1  Histoiy  of  Welsh  Literature :  Guiman  translation  by  San-Martc, 
1864. 


296  NATIONAL  PROPHECIES. 

of  a  favorable  change  expressed  itself  in  their  vaticina- 
tions. Merlin  became  in  fact  the  personified  prophetic 
spirit  of  the  people,  and  his  name  was  attached  to 
every  utterance.  In  the  most  ancient  witness,  the 
British  historian  Nennius,  in  the  ninth  century,  he 
already  appears  in  a  purely  mythical  form, — the  won- 
drous boy,  who  was  in  truth  the  son  of  a  Roman  consul 
whom  the  mother  ^lad  never  known.  In  a  deep  and 
hidden  ground  he  discovers  the  two  serpents,  the  white 
(Saxon)  and  the  red  (British),  now  struggling  with 
each  other.  As  the  North  Britons,  in  Scotland,  also 
had  their  national  prophecies,  and  as  a  sponsor  was 
needed  for  these  nameless  and  wandering  sayings,  a  ' 
second  Merlin  was  invented,  the  Caledonian,  a  counter- 
part of  the  first.  Of  him  it  was  reported,  that  becom- 
ing crazed  by  the  sight  of  two  serpents  hovering  in 
the  air,  he  fled  into  a  forest  and  there  ended  his  life ; 
and  so  it  came  to  pass  there,  as  in  Wales,  that  many, 
like  the  Scottish  chronicler  Fordun,  imagined  that 
they  saw  in  passing  events  the  fulfilment  of  a  Merlin 
prophecy. 

After  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  Merlin 
also  became  celebrated  as  a  prophet  in  the  whole  of 
Southern  Europe,  and  his  name,  like  that  of  "  the 
Sibyl,"  was  ready  for  the  prophecies  ever  springing  up. 
Galfricd  of  Monmouth,  Bishop  of  St.  Asaph  about 


NATIONAL  PROPHECIES.  297 

1152,  helped  this  on  the  most  by  his  History  of  the 
Britons.  This  work  chiefly  contributed  to  spread 
abroad  upon  the  continent  the  fame  of  MerHn  the 
prophet.  Along  with  Turpin's  "  Life  of  Charlemagne," 
Galfried's  charmingly  told  story  of  the  old  British 
Kings  had  the  greatest  influence  upon  the  legendary 
sphere  of  the  middle  ages.  To  magnify  his  people,  he 
took  the  narratives  of  Gildas,  Bede,  and  Nennius, 
woven  in  with  British  legends  and  adorned  with  further 
tradiiions,  and  thus  made  up  an  attractive,  smoothly 
running  history,  which  long  prepossessed  the  fol- 
lowing generations.  His  allegation,  that  he  only 
translated  a  wholly  unknown  British  original  work,  is 
doubtless  a  fiction.  He  created  in  fact  a  fascinating 
romance,  which  in  its  turn  became  the  direct  or  indi- 
rect source  of  innumerable  romances  and  poems  ;  and 
from  this  in  the  subsequent  centuries,  especially  in 
the  legend  about  Arthur  and  the  Round  Table,  there 
flowed  a  broad  stream  of  fanciful  legends. 

The  long  prophecy  of  Merlin,  incorporated  by  Gal- 
fried  into  his  work  and  also  published  by  itself,  deeply 
aroused  the  fancy,  not  merely  of  the  Britons,  but  also 
of  other  people,  especially  the  French,  in  the  middle 
ages.  Galfried  appears  to  have  spun  out  the  sayings 
and  images  of  Merlin,  preserved  by  oral  tradition,  and 
to   have   arranged  them   in    a    chronological   order. 


298  NATIONAL  PROPHECIES. 

The  German  Dragon,  before  which  the  Red  Drac^on 
must  recede,  is  to  be  revenged  by  a  people  (the  Nor- 
mans) out  of  Neustria,  clad  in  wood  and  iron.  Somi 
incidents  taken  from  English  history  in  the  early  part 
of  the  twelfth  century,  together  with  the  seizure  of 
Ireland,  are  annexed  ;  and  soon  afterwards  he  predicts 
definitely  as  to  the  time  of  the  great  national  resur- 
rection of  the  Welsh  race.  Then  is  to  come  the  over- 
throw of  the  foreigners,  the  Anglo-Saxons  and  the 
Normans.  The  streams  will  run  red  with  blood. 
Armorica  will  pour  out  its  springs  (that  is  the  Britons 
will  conquer  with  the  help  of  their  kindred  from  Bri- 
tany),  and  they  will  be  crowned  with  the  crown  of 
Brut,  the  first  fabulous  British  King  ;  the  island  will 
be  named  again  with  the  name  of  Brut  (Brittany), 
and  England,  the  name  given  by  the  strangers,  will 
be  used  no  more. 

Galfried  did  not  invent  these  things,  but  gathered 
them  from  popular  tradition.  Nothing  of  all  this 
occurred,  rather  the  opposite  ;  and  we  can  understand 
how  Englishmen,  like  the  chronicler  William  of  New- 
bridge (about  1 198),  would  be  impelled  to  protest 
against  these  divutationcs  fallacissinice  and  their 
fanciful  propagators.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  a  strik- 
ing fact,  that  the  prophetic  fame  of  Merlin  constantly 
held  its  ground,  not  only  among  the  Britons,  but  also 


NATIONAL  PROPHECIES.  299 

among  the  French  and  Germans.  It  was  said  of  Kincj 
Arthur  in  the  prophecy  :  "  His  departure  will  be  doubt- 
ful "  ;  that  is,  it  will  be  uncertain  whether  he  is  dead 
or  still  alive.  But  the  people  believed  that  he  was 
alive  and  would  come  back  ;  and,  according  to  the 
commentator  Alanus,  in  Brittany  any  one  would  be 
stoned  who  maintained  that  Arthur  died  like  any 
other  man.  ^ 

Even  the  English  historians  favored  the  universal 
belief  in  Merlin  and  his  prophecies.  How  often  they 
say  :  "  Tunc  impletum  est  illud  Merlini,"  or  :  "  Ut  im- 
pleretur  Merlini  prophctia."  Galfricd  in  important 
respects  altered  the  legend  about  Merlin, — he  makes, 
for  example,  a  demon,  James,  to  be  his  father  ;  and 
he  cannot  be  freed  from  the  reproach  of  thus  favoring 
a  baleful  superstition,  which  cost  thousands  of  men 
their  lives,  when  Thomas  Aquinas  shaped  it  into  a 
theological  dogma. 

According  to  the  belief  of  the  Britons,  Merlin  fore- 
told not  only  the  fall  of  the  British  Kingdom,  the 
invasion  of  the  Sa.xons  and  then  of  the  Normans,  but 
also  the  return  of  the  kings  Arthur  and  Cadwallader  ; 
he  predicted  that  the  Red  Dragon  would  at  last  con- 
quer the  White,  that  the  old  British  Kingdom  would 
be  at  last  built  up  ;  and  so,  as  the  monk  of  Malmes- 

1  Alani  ab  lusulis  rioplictia  Auglicana,    Frcf.  1603,  p.  19,  30. 


300  NATIONAL  PROPHECIES. 

bury  reports,  the  credulous  Welsh  people  were  con- 
stantly breaking  out  in  insurrections  and  revolts,  until 
at  last  in  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century 
the  English  completely  and  permanently  subdued  the 
land.  And  thus  the  Welsh  restlessness  and  fond- 
ness for  insurrection  and  war  were  ascribed  to  the 
Merlin  predictions.  ^  The  need  of  a  prophecy  of  an 
opposite  character,  to  pour  water  upon  the  too  fiery 
wine  of  the  Cymrian  hopes,  was  urgently  felt.  And 
so,  under  the  name  of  an  old  Welsh  bard,  Tcliesin, 
who  lived  in  the  sixth  century,  there  sprung  up  this 
prediction  :  "  You  will  keep  your  language  and  your 
songs,  but  nothing  will  remain  to  you  of  your  old 
landed  possessions,  excepting  your  rough  Welsh 
mountains."  2  To  effect  a  thorough  cure  of  the  Welsh 
from  their  hallucination  about  Arthur,  as  still  living 
and  some  time  to  return,  as  late  as  the  time  of  King 
Henry  II.,  there  was  a  pretended  discovery  of  his 
grave,  and  the  actual  corpse  of  Arthur  was  declared  to 
have  been  exhumed,  after  he  had  lain  there  for  si.x 

1  "  IIos  consuovit  fallcro  ct  ad  bclla  inipiiiRcre  Jleilini  vatici- 
nium,"  says  the  monk  llanuliih  Iligden,  about  1310,  in  hi.s  Polycro- 
nicon,  ed.  Babington,  Lond.  18Gj,  i,  410. 

2  In  the  Cambro- Briton,  London,  1821,  ii,  185,  the  prophecy, 
somewhat  modernised,  reads  tliiis  : 

"  Still  sliall  thoy  chaimt  their  Makers  praise, 
Still  kcu'j)  tlieir  lanpuaj,'e  and  their  lays, 
But  nought  of  all  their  old  domain 
Save  Wallia's  rude  and  mountain  reign," 


NATIONAL  PROPHECIES.  301 

hundred  years  ;  he  was  then  said  to  have  died  in  the 
year  542  on  the  island  Avalon.  But  the  popular 
belief  could  not  for  a  long  time  be  rooted  out.  Mean- 
while Merlin's  prophetic  fame  spread  over  land  and 
sea,  so  that  in  the  thirteenth  century,  even  in  Italy, 
a  prophecy  of  Merlin  was  found  to  be  connected  with 
every  remarkable  and  influential  event. 

Merlin's  reputation  was  still  greater  in  France,  where 
the  Celtic  sympathy  for  their  oppressed  race  upon  the 
Island,  and  early  hatred  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  lent 
special  weight  to  the  Merlin  prophecies  about  the 
Britons.  In  Guillaume  le  Breton's  poetical  history  of 
King  Philip  Augustus,  at  the  close,  King  Louis  VIII. 
is  formally  summoned  to  fulfil  the  promise  of  the  Bri- 
tish seer,  and  to  tear  awr.y  the  sceptre  from  the  "  En- 
glish Boy"  (the  young  King  Henry  III.  of  England), 
so  that  he,  Louis,  may  reign  alone  in  both  kingdoms; 
"  and  thus",  adds  the  poet,  "  according  to  the  predic- 
tion of  the  Briton  seer  (Merlin),  the  poison  of  the 
White  Serpent  (the  Anglo-Saxon)  with  his  whole  pro- 
geny will  be  thoroughly  rooted  out  of  our  gardens."  ^ 

We  might  naturally  expect  to  find  in  Ireland  a 
prophetic  spirit  akin  to  that  of  Wales  ;  yet  Ireland 
produced  no  Merlin.  Here  the  predictions  are  as- 
cribed to  the  old  saints  of  the  land,  Patrick,  Columba, 

J  In  the  Reeueil  des  Uitloriens  de  France,  xvii,  28C. 
2G 


302  NATIONAL  PROPHECIES. 

Adamnan.  But  these  predictions  have  no  religious 
character.  They  relate  in  part  to  events,  and  very 
insignificant  ones,  in  the  endless  feuds  of  individual 
Irish  chieftains  ;  or  to  the  irruption  of  the  Danes  in 
the  ninth  century  ;  or  in  fine  to  the  Anglo-Norman 
settlement  and  gradual  ravage  of  the  country.  The 
Englishman,  Giraldus  Cambrensis,  called  his  history 
of  the  conquest  of  Ireland,  written  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  a  "  Prophetic  History"  {His tor ia  Vaticinalis); 
for  he  intended  to  show  that  the  old  prophecies  of  St. 
Columba  and  other  Irish  fathers  were  fulfilled  in  the 
irruption  and  the  bloody  successes  of  the  English 
adventurers,  Strongbow  and  Dc  Courcy. 

The  suspicion  that  such  oracles  were  then  invented 
in  the  interest  of  the  English  invaders  is  heightened  by 
the  statement  of  Giraldus,  that  DeCourcy,  himself 
always  carried  round  with  him  a  book  of  Irish  predic- 
tions. ^  And  when  it  was  further  proclaimed  in  na- 
tive prophecies  that  the  English  would  never  more  be 
expelled  from  the  possession  of  the  eastern  part  of  the 
island,  but  that  in  the  last  times  they  would  rule  over 
all  Ireland, — the  intent  of  these  inventions  is  certainly 
manifest.     A  learned  Irishman,  O'Curry,  2  has  lately 

1  III  C.iml>dcn's  Collection:  Anglica^  Normannica,  Ilibertiica. 
Frankfort,  1005,  p.  794  sq.,  803. 

2  Lectures  on  the  Manuscri}it  Materials  qf  Irish  Jlistory.  Dublin, 
18G1,  pp.  382,  434. 


NATIONAL  PROPHECIES.  303 

sifted  the  mass  of  prophecies  found  in  Ireland,  the 
most  of  which  are  only  in  manuscript,  and  convinced 
himself  that  they  were  partly  made  after  the  events, 
and  partly  invented  for  the  sake  of  the  result.  Those 
prophecies  which,  in  Ireland  as  elsewhere,  flatter  the 
impoverished  posterity  of  families  once  rich  and  noble, 
with  the  prospect  of  a  revolution  and  restoration,  here 
seem  to  be  preserved  rather  as  family  traditions. 
O'Curry  testifies  that  they  are  still  prevalent.  ^  lie 
says,  that  "  he  himself  knows  hundreds  of  persons, 
among  them  highly  educated  men  and  women,  wlio 
neglect  the  usual  means  of  obtaining  a  position  in  life, 
in  the  hope  nurtured  by  these  prophecies,  that  a  great 
restoration  is  to  be  completed  in  Ireland, — although 
these  predictions  do  not  give  a  single  date." 

The  Scots,  too,  as  was  to  be  expected,  also  have 
their  national  prophecies,  a  collection  of  which  was 
published  by  the  Bannatyne  Club  in  1833.  Yet  al- 
most all  of  them  have  plainly  the  impress  of  inven- 
tions following  after  the  events.  Some  few  of  them, 
genuine  of  their  kind,  originated  at  the  time  when 
the  Scots  were  made  subject  to  the  English  suprem- 
acy, as  was  especially  the  case  after  1355,  ^^'^  again 
after  15 13.  These  national  predictions  comforted  the 
subjugated   people    with    the    hope   that  "  ^Vlbania  ' 

I.  Lectures,  p.  431. 


304  NATIONAL  PROPHECIES. 

(Scotland)  would  be  again  raised  up,  and,  in  union 
uith  the  descendants  of  Brut  (the  Welsh),  would  lay 
prostrate  their  arrogant  English  neighbor  and  make 
the  soil  of  England  reek  with  blood.  ^  In  later  times, 
after  the  treaties  between  Scotland  and  France,  these 
prophetic  hopes  that  were  never  fulfilled  became  con- 
nected with  the  powerful  aid  of  the  French  lilies. 

In  the  south-western  part  of  Europe,  in  after  times, 
the  kingdom  of  Portugal  by  its  tragic  fate  became  a 
fruitful  soil  for  prophecies.  This  small  country,  through 
an  able  dynasty,  the  second  Burgundian,  was,  in  the 
course  of  the  fifteenth  century,  elevated  to  the  height 
of  worldly  power  (the  first  in  these  modern  times),  by 
means  of  its  discoveries  and  colonies  in  Asia  and 
Africa  ;  its  chief  city  became  the  principal  market  of 
the  world.  Under  its  king  Immanuel,  rightly  called 
the  Great  [1495-1521],  the  way  to  the  East- Indies  by 
sea  was  discovered,  and  Brazil  was  subdued.  After 
the  death  of  John  III,  [1557],  the  boy  Sebastian  as- 
cended the  throne,  and,  misled  by  the  Jesuits,  under- 
took a  war  in  Africa  with  wholly  insufficient  arma- 
ments, and  Portugal  lost,  in  1578,  in  the  unfortunate 
battle  of  Alcassar,  its  king  and  its  army,  while  short- 
ly afterwards  the   Burgundian  dynasty  wholly  died 

4.  See  tlio  Latin  prophecy,  as  given  in  Wright's  Reliquix  Antiqutt 
(Loudon,  184G),  ii,  p   246. 


NATIONAL  PROPHECIES.  305 

out  in  both  its  male  and  female  lines.  The  country- 
was  in  consequence  conquered,  plundered  and  made 
subject  for  sixty  years  to  the  hated  Spanish  bondage  ; 
and  since  then,  under  the  national  dynasty  of  Bra- 
ganza,  it  has  never  been  elevated  to  its  former  power 
and  prosperity.  In  this  state  of  things  we  there  find, 
what  formerly  occurred  in  Germany  after  the  death  of 
the  emperor  Frederick  II.,  that  a  deep  longing  foi 
the  vanished  king  (of  whose  death  in  the  battle  there 
was  no  sure  account)  was  awakened  in  the  unhappy 
nation.  The  Portuguese  clung  tenaciously  to  the 
comfort  and  hope  that  their  king  was  not  dead,  and 
that  at  the  right  moment  he  would  again  appear  and 
break  the  Spanish  yoke  in  pieces.  One  false  Se- 
bastian came  forward  after  another,  undeterred  by  the 
fate  of  his  predecessor  ;  and  the  belief  could  not  be 
eradicated,  that  the  "  hidden  Prince  "  (o  prencipe  en- 
cubierto),  as  he  was  called,  was  living  on  a  far  island  ; 
the  whole  arsenal  of  predictions,  from  the  time  of  Joa- 
chim and  St,  Bridget,  was  searched  through,  and  soon 
some  were  found  which  might  be  interpreted  about 
Portugal  and  its  glorious  future,  and  confirm  the  delu- 
sion of  the  Sebastianists.  Nor  were  there  wanting 
new  oracles  fresh  from  the  cloisters  ;  national  prophets 
arose,  chief  among  them  the  tailor  Bandara,  whose 
comforting  verses  the  Portuguese  knew  bv  heart.    Far 


3o6  NATIONAL  PROPHECIES. 

beyond  the  years  of  human  hfe  there  was  a  confident 
expectation  of  the  appearance  of  a  national  king  ; 
and  even  the  succession  of  the  house  of  Braganza  to 
the  throne  was  not  able  to  dissipate  it.  Count  von 
Schomberg,  coming  from  Portugal,  said  to  king  Louis 
XIV.,  "  Half  of  this  nation  is  looking  for  king  Sebas- 
tian, the  other  half  for  the  Messiah."  ^  Sebastian  was 
the  Portuguese  symbol  and  pledge  of  their  irrecov- 
erable national  greatness  and  glory  ;  and  the  thought 
of  their  colonies  plundered  by  English  and  Dutch,  of 
their  scattered  wealth  and  their  lost  traffic,  kept  the 
hope  ever  alive,  that  he,  by  whose  disappearance  all 
was  broken  up,  would  restore  all  when  he  came  again.  - 
Even  after  the  middle  of  the  seventeenth  century, 
when  the  house  of  Braganza  was  already  firmly  seated 
upon  the  Portuguese  throne,  a  man  appeared  in  the 
character  of  a  political  and  religious  prophet,  v.hose 
name  stands  very  high  in  the  literature  of  his  country, 
the  Jesuit  Vieira,  the  most  famous  sacred  orator  of 
his  nation.     Like  the  Joachimitcs,  he  only  attempted 

1  "  Que  vouloz-voTis  que  jn  dise  i\  votro  JIajcstc  d'uno  nation 
dont  la  nioitie  atU'iid  le  roi  Siliastien,  et  rantru  k'Mesnic?''  Sec 
Boutaric,  Corrcspondance  SecTct'j  Incditede  Louis  XIV.  (Paris,  18G7), 

i,  p.  191.     By  "  tlic  otliLT   half"  tS'.hoiuborf;;  meant  the   iiuincioiis 
Jews  (in  secret),  who  were  then  still  called  Portii;^uese. 

2  Sot!  Miguel  d'Autas,  Lcs  Faut  Don  Seb"sl^en  ;  Etude  sitr  V UIk. 
toire  de  Portugal  (Paris,  1866^,  pp.  450,  45G).  It  is  here  stated  that 
&>  late  at  181)3,  there  were  still  Sebabtiaiiists  iu  the  heart  of  Brazil 


NATIONAL  PROPHECIES.  307 

to  interpret  and  apply  prophecies  already  at  hand, — 
the  most  of  them  by  Spanish  and  Portuguese  monks, 
including  those  of  Bandara. 

After  investigations  continued  through  twenty  years, 
he  published  a  key  to  the  prophets  and  a  "  History 
of  the  Future"  (chiefly  based  on  Bandara),^  in  order 
to  proclaim  to  his  expectant  and  longing  countrymen 
(the  still  numerous  Sebastianists)  that,  "  God  will  again 
raise  up  your  king,  and  elevate  his  Portugal  to  be  the 
heart  and  centre  of  a  new  universal  empire,  the  fifth, 
according  to  the  prophet  Daniel, — since  the  fourth, 
the  Roman-German,  is  already  falling  in  pieces,  and 
will  be  wholly  dissolved  at  the  coming  of  Sebastian. 
In  the  time  of  this  fifth  empire  all  Jews  and  heathen 
will  be  converted  ;  and  thus  the  prophecy  about  one 
shepherd  and  one  fold  will  be  fulfilled."  The  In- 
quisition of  Coimbra  investigated  this  affair,  the  pope 
confirmed  its  judgment,  and  Vicira  was  obliged  to 
recant  and  was  imprisoned  for  many  years. 

It  is  remarkable  that,  in  the  East  Roman  empire, 
the  heathen  institutions  of  the  Old  Roman  state  for 

1  nutoria  do  Futuro;  besides  this,  an  nnprintcd  MS.  entitled: 
Espemncas  de  Puitiii^al  ;  qiilnto  Iniperio  do  Muudo ;  and  another 
work,  first  puMished  in  1S5G  :  Dincorso  em  que  se  pvva  a  vinda  do 
Senhor  Reif  D.  Sebastian.  See  D'Antas,  p.  45.3  ;  and  the  Deductto 
Chronolojica  el  Aiulylica  of  bcabni  Silvius  (Libsabon,  1771),  vol.  ii, 
p.  328. 


3o8  NATIONAL  PROPHECIES. 

determining  destiny,  sometimes  by  oracles,  some- 
times by  the  interpretation  of  signs,  were  perpetuated 
or  sprung  up  anew.  In  the  imperial  library  of  Con- 
stantinople there  has  been  found,  since  the  eighth  or 
ninth  century,  a  book  of  figures  with  explanatory 
text,  called  the  Sibylline  prophecies.  The  text  is  no 
less  uncertain  and  ambiguous  than  the  figures  of  men 
and  animals  which  it  was  meant  to  interpret.  Bishop 
Luitprand,  in  his  correspondence  as  ambassador,  men- 
tions a  Book  of  Visions  {hpaaur),  which  does  not  seem 
to  be  different  from  the  above.  He  says  that  the 
Greeks  named  it  after  Daniel,  but  he  would  call  it 
Sibylline  ;  that  it  contained  the  number  of  years  that 
each  emperor  should  reign  and  the  fortunes  of  the 
empire  under  him  ;  which  probably  only  means  that 
these  details  were  reckoned  out  from  certain  signs  and 
images. 

How  this  was  done  may  be  seen  from  the  applica- 
tion made  of  it  by  occasion  of  the  murder  of  the 
emperor  Leo  the  Armenian,  according  to  the  report 
of  Zonaras.  The  pictures  showed  a  lion  with  the 
Greek  letter  X  on  its  back  ;  and  a  man  is  piercing  the 
lion  right  through  the  X.  It  was  now  discovered 
that  this  prefigured  the  assassination  of  the  emperor 
on  Christmas,  Christ's  day, — whence  the  letter  X. 

There  exists  an  interpretation  or  paraphrase  of  these 


NATIONAL  PROPHECIES.  309 

oracles,  ascribed  to  the  emperor  Leo  the  Philosopher  ; 
but  it  sounds  like  an  independent  prophecy,  promis- 
ing in  obscure  and  rough  speech  the  advent  of  an 
imperial  deUverer,  an  oriental  Frederick,  who  was  to 
save  the  kingdom  and  the  people.  Coming  forth 
from  the  Ishmaelites  (the  Mohammedans),  he  is  to  rule 
over  them,  adorned  with  all  the  virtues,  an  archangel 
of  God  in  the  form  of  a  venerable  old  man,  poor  as  a 
beggar,  yet  needing  nothing.  Two  angels  in  the  form 
of  eunuchs  are  to  accompany  him  ;  a  voice  from  hea- 
ven will  cry  out  to  the  nations :  "  Will  you  choose 
him  ?  "  and  all  will  receive  him  with  worship. 

There  is  no  hint  about,  the  time  when  this  prophecy  * 
first  originated.  It  is  remarkable,  however,  in  repre- 
senting the  deliverance  as  coming  from  that  hereditary 
foe,  the  Moslem  ; — or  is  there  here  already  the  anti- 
cipation of  a  Moslem  ruler,  subjecting  the  empire  of 
East  Rome  .''  And  then,  too,  poverty  is  named  as 
the  chief  virtue  of  this  deliverer  ;  while  in  Anatolian 
Christendom  poverty  did  not  by  any  means  have  the 
worth  and  the  religious  significa-ncy  ascribed  to  it  by 
the  Western  nations  since  the  thirteenth  century. 

Besides,  the  Germany  of  the  Occident  is  distin- 
guished by  the  expectation  that  its  coming  emperor, 

1  It  is  found,  together  with  other  writings  of  Leo,  in  vol. 
cvii  of  Migac's  Pairologia  Orseca^  p.  1141.  sq. 


310  NATIONAL  PROPHECIES. 

the  longed-for  Frederick,  is  to  be  a  genuine  king's 
son,  the  offspring  of  the  ruling  race,  and  not  an  up- 
start. Such  an  one  could  only  be  expected,  where 
enduring  dynasties  and  dynastic  attachments  were 
almost  unknown,  and  the  name  Porphyrogcnitus  (born 
in  the  purple)  was  a  rare  distinction. 

Yet  this  Byzantine  expectation  of  a  Deliverer, 
called  from  the  deepest  poverty  to  the  imperial  dig- 
nity, of  a  beggar  {■^-^^xo':)  whom  God  was  to  raise 
up  out  of  penury  ("^o  Trfwaf),  for  a  long  time 
kept  its  ground.  We  find  it  in  the  tenth  century  in 
Nicephorus,  the  biographer  of  Andreas  Salo.  ^  This 
long-expected  One  was  to  lead  the  Byzantine  empire 
into  a  golden  age,  to  humble  the  sons  of  Hagar  (the 
Arabs)  and  burn  them  up  with  their  children.  From 
the  twelfth  year  of  his  reign  all  taxes  are  to  cease. 
Illyricum  (Bulgaria)  and  Egypt  will  again  become 
kingdoms,  and  at  last  he  will  also  tame  the  blond- 
haired  nations  (the  Germans  and  Franks),  and  bear 
the  sceptre  for  three  and  thirty  years.  Thus  are  the 
wishes  of  the  Greeks  transformed  into  prophecies. 
But  the  prophecy,  in  a  characteristic  way,  goes  on  to 
say,  that  a  period  of  darkness,  and  governments  loaded 
with  crime,  will  follow  right  after  this  brilliant  domin- 
ion.    There  is  to  be  a  sudden  transition  from  a  time 

1  Acta  Sanctorum,  maji.  vi,  Apiicud.  p.  9G. 


NATIONAL  PROPHECIES.  311 

of  shining  virtue  and  moral  purity  to  an  era  In  which 
all  manner  of  shameless  crimes  will  abound, — a  revo- 
lution, the  only  cause  of  which  (in  correspondence 
with  the  Byzantine  absolutism)  is  to  be  the  personal- 
ity, the  will  and  the  example  of  the  monarch.  In 
the  principal  city  of  the  empire  they  already  believed, 
as  a  prophetic  certainty,  that  Constantinople,  the  city 
dedicated  to  the  Virgin,  and  by  her  shielded,  would 
never  be  sacked  by  foes.  It  will,  they  say,  be  belea- 
guered, but  the  enemy  will  raise  the  siege  in  disgrace.  ^ 
This  delusion  was  indeed  destroyed  by  the  Latin  con- 
quest in  the  year  1204.  There  is  also  a  later  Sibyl- 
line prediction,  ^  probably  devised  before  the  year 
1453.  Here  it  is  said  that  the  crimes  of  Byzantium, 
the  blood  there  shed,  and  its  sins  against  nature  will 
rise  up  before  God  ;  the  enemy  will  hurl  himself 
against  the  city,  annihilate  its  splendor  and  glory, 
desecrate  its  sanctuaries  and  women,  give  up  its  buil- 
dings to  the  flames,  and  make  its  woes  resound 
abroad.  Then,  in  obscure  words,  there  is  an  intima- 
tion of  a  future  revolution. 

In  the  last  times  of  the  dying  empire,  such  prophe- 
cies produced    very  injurious  effects ;  they  confused 

1  This  was  annrmncod  by  Andreas  Salo,  iibi  supra,  98. 

2  To  be  found  ill   Wolfs  collection,   LecUonet  Jlemorabil  s  (hau- 
ingen,  IGOO),  vol.  i,  p.  71. 


312  NATIONAL  PROPHECIES. 

and  disheartened  the  people.  In  a  cloister  of  Con- 
stantinople there  was  found  a  tablet,  which,  like  the 
other  Byzantine  predictions,  was  ascribed  to  the  em- 
peror Leo  the  Philosopher  (886-911).  This  showed 
in  two  columns  the  succession  of  the  emperors  and 
the  patriarchs  ;  every  name  had  its  own  compart- 
ment, and  it  was  found  that  there  was  only  a  single 
empty  one  left,  so  that  the  present  emperor  Constan- 
tine  was  to  be  the  last.  On  the  other  hand  there  was 
another  prophecy,  intended  to  inspire  the  Byzantines 
with  confidence,  which  likewise  had  pernicious  effects. 
It  ran  thus  :  When  the  Turks  have  forced  their  way 
into  the  city  as  far  as  the  column  of  Justinian,  then 
an  angel  will  suddenly  appear  and  annihilate  all  of 
them.  The  actual  result  of  their  firm  belief  in  this 
miraculous  deliverance  was,  that  the  people  abandoned 
all  part  in  the  defence,  leaving  it  to  the  garrison  alone, 
which  was  altogether  too  weak.  ^  A  remarkable  ex- 
ample of  the  influence  of  these  Byzantine  prophecies 
even  upon  highly  cultivated  and  acute  minds,  is  found 
in  the  zealous  Aristotelian,  Georgius  of  Trapezium,  one 
of  the  most  learned  of  the  Greeks,  driven  into  Italy 
by  the  Turkish  conquests.  The  old  vaticination  about 
an  emperor  and  universal  monarch,   to  be  raised  up 

1  LaonicusClialcondylus,  8,215,  p.40C,  ed.  Bonn.  Leonard,  Chicns. 
•p.  Bzovium,  Annal.  £ccles.  aan.  1453. 


NATIONAL  PROPHECIES.  313 

among  the  Ishmaelites,  led  him  in  the  year  1469  at 
Rome,  where  he  was  a  pubh'c  teacher,  to  the  convic- 
tion that  the  present  Sultan,  Mohammed  II.,  the  con- 
queror of  Constantinople,  was  this  very  Ishmaelite, — 
who  would  soon  be  converted  to  the  Christian  faith, 
and,  as  the  emperor  Immanuel  and  sole  monarch  of 
the  world,  would  call  all  nations  to  the  true  faith  ;  and 
this  conversion  of  the  world  was  to  take  place  of  itself, 
without  any  special  effort  on  the  part  of  Christians. 
In  Rome  this  harmless  hope  was  imputed  to  him  as 
a  mischievous  transgression  ;  for  it  was  thought  that 
he  must  also  mean  that  his  "  righteous  emperor,"  in 
accordance  with  the  wide  spread  occidental  expecta- 
tions about  the  coming  emperor,  would  set  on  foot  a 
general  slaughter  of  the  clergy.  But  Georgius  did  not 
at  all  mean  this ;  the  Byzantine  prophecies  knew 
nothing  about  such  a  bloody  destruction  of  the  clergy  ; 
for  in  the  Eastern  Church  the  relation  of  the  clergy  to 
the  laity  was  not  so  perverted  and  inimical  as  it  then 
was  in  the  West  The  unhappy  man  was  seized  by 
the  Roman  authorities,  despoiled  of  his  property  and 
put  in  prison,  until  at  last  king  Alphonso  of  Naples 
took  his  part  and  supported  him  until  his  death  in 
1483. 1 

1  See  about  him,  Aretin's  Beitriige  sntr  Oeschfehie  und  LiUratur, 
ix,  837. 

27 


IV.   TJie  Prophecy  about  Rome. 

One  city  has  furnished  ampler  materials  than  many 
a  great  empire  to  Inspire  the  spirit  of  prophecy.  The 
city  of  Rome  for  two  thousand  years  has  stood  alone 
and  unapproached,  as  one  of  the  great  factors  in  the 
world's  history ;  and,  though  it  has  been  the^  grave 
of  nations,  yet  it  still  draws  men  to  it  by  a  magnetic 
power, — an  enticing  object  which  every  one  longs 
to  see  once  in  his  life.  In  the  most  extraordinary 
manner,  the  views  held  about  the  duration  of  this  city, 
and  the  high  protection  it  enjoyed,  have  in  the  course 
of  time  been  totally  transformed.  Under  heathen 
rule  Rome  was  believed  to  be  eternal,  and  the  name 
*'  Eternal  City/'  ruler  of  the  world,  was  applied  to  it 
as  a  matter  of  course  in  poetry,  history,  and  even  in 
public  life. 

Under  the  christian  emperors  also,  until  the  end 
of  the  fifth  century,  Rome  retained  its  name  "Eternal 
City,"  at  least  among  heathen  writers.  Ammianus 
Marcellinus  said  :  "  It  shall  live  as  long  as  there  are 
men."  1  This  name  was  offensive  to  the  Christians  ; 
for  they  thought  that  the  "  name  of  blasphemy  "  (Rev. 

1  lierum  Oest'irum,  1.  IG,  c.  10,  14. 

311 


THE  PROPHECY  ABOUT  ROME.     3 r 5 

xvli,  3),  written  upon  the  forehead  of  the  great  whore, 
clothed  in  purple,  contained  an  allusion  to  this  predi- 
cate of  eternity.  ^  This  proud  name  died  out  with 
the  dissolution  of  heathendom,  and  the  fall  of  the 
Roman  Empire  of  the  West  (about  476),  although 
other  names  remained,  as,  for  example,  Ausonius 
greets  Rome  as  "  the  house  of  the  gods,  the  mistress 
or  head  of  the  world."  Even  after  the  fall  of  the 
empire,  after  the  devastation  by  Alaric  the  Goth  and 
the  sacking  under  Genseric,  Rome  still  remained  in 
the  eyes  of  men  the  first  of  cities,  the  head  of  the 
world,  apart  too  from  its  ecclesiastical  relations. 
When  Totila,  the  Gothic  king,  boasted  that  he  would 
raze  Rome  to  the  ground,  Belisarius  (547)  warned  him 
in  reply,  that  if  he  outraged  this  city,  chief  of  all  the 
cities,  he  would  commit  high  treason  against  the 
whole  human  race.  ^ 

In  the  eighth  century  there  are  still  found  echoes 
here  and  there  of  the  ancient  opinion  that  Rome  is 
the  ruler  of  the  world,  but  these  are  already  mixed  up 
with  the  later  ecclesiastical  views  ;  as  when  the  abbess 
Cengitha  in  733  expressed  to  Boniface  her  desire  to 
visit  \\\Q.for)ncr  mistress  of  the  world,  and  there  re- 

1  Sec  Hicronymi  Opera,  ed.  Villarsi,  i,  852  ;  and  the  author  of  tho 
■work  De  Promiss.  et  Pradictionibua  Dei,  in  the  collection  of  I'lus- 
per's  works  (Paris,  ITU),  Appendix,  p.  10-1. 

2  Procopius,  Bell.  Gothic,  c.  23,  p.  548. 


3i6     THE  PROPHECY  ABOUT  ROME. 

ceive  forgiveness  of  sin.  ^  But  the  existence  of  the 
Roman  Empire  was  no  longer  bound  up,  as  in  the 
earHer  representations,  with  the  continuance  of  Rome. 
Before  the  revival  of  the  western  Roman  Empire  by- 
Charlemagne  (800),  the  Roman  Empire  was  continued 
by  name  in  the  east ;  for  the  Byzantine  Greeks  always 
called  themselves  Romans,  and  claimed  that  they 
were  the  only  genuine  and  legal  heirs  and  successors 
of  old  Rome.  And  since  800  Rome  has  never  been 
the  chief  city  of  the  empire  in  the  west,  never  the 
seat  of  the  emperors.  In  the  thousand  years,  from 
500  to  1500,  as  in  earlier  times,  the  end  of  the  Roman 
Empire  was  thought  to  be  necessarily  connected  with 
the  end  of  the  world  ;  but  yet  during  this  period  it 
was  no  longer  imagined  that  the  city  of  Rome  would 
likewise  endure  until  the  end  of  time.  On  the  con- 
trary, by  a  closer  study  of  the  Revelation  of  John,  the 
result  was  gradually  reached,  that  the  prophecy  in  the 
eighteenth  chapter  of  the  Apocalypse,  about  the  judi- 
cial destruction  of  Rome,  was  not  yet  fulfilled,  but  was 
still  to  come,  and  this,  too,  long  before  the  close  of 
the  present  aion.  According  to  the  Revelation  of 
John,  the  judgment  upon  the  City  of  the  Seven  Hills 
is  to  come  suddenly,  in  a  day,  with  death,  mourning, 
hunger   and  burning,   and  the  city  is  to  be  wholly 

1  Bonilacii  O^tera^  cd.  Giles,  i,  76. 


THE  PROPHECY  ABOUT  ROME,     317 

consumed.  These  predictions  did  not  come  to  pass  in 
the  storms  of  the  Gothic  wars,  for  then  there  was 
only  a  gradual  and  partial  destruction  of  the  city. 

St.  Benedict  of  Nursia,  about  542,  had  predicted 
that  Rome  was  not  to  be  destroyed  by  foreign  nations, 
but  to  be  visited  by  natural  events,  storms,  whirl- 
winds and  earthquakes,  and  to  die  out  in  and  of 
itself.  ^  Since  then  more  than  thirteen  hundred  years 
have  passed,  and  none  of  these  physical  devastations 
have  occurred.  The  plain  meaning  of  this.prophccy  of 
the  Apocalypse  afterwards  forced  interpreters  to  as- 
sume that  there  was  still  to  be  a  future  destruction  of 
Rome  by  fire.  The  time  for  this  was  conceived  as 
being  near  or  remote,  according  as  the  interpreters 
had  in  mind,  either  the  mere  moral  condition  of  its 
inhabitants,  or  as  they  connected  this  overthrow  of 
the  city  with  the  corruptions  of  the  Churcli  and  the 
degeneracy  and  guilt  of  the  papacy.  In  the  latter 
case  they  viewed  the  judgments  upon  this  scat  and 
centre  of  the  government  of  the  Church  as  merely  a 
part  of  the  whole,  a  single  stage  in  the  great  process 
of  the  purification  of  the  Church. 

Thus  it  was  with  the  Spiritiialcs  {zdotcs)  of  the 
Minorite  order,  who  interpreted  the  Babylon  of  the 
Apocalypse  of  the  Roman  Church,  then  at  Avignon, 

1  M.  Gregorii  Dialogi,  2,  15,  ed.  Benedict,  ii,  240. 


3r8      THE  PROPHECY  ABOUT  ROME. 

which  had  become  corrupt  and  sensuous ;  and  who 
also  looked  for  the  destruction  of  Rome  by  fire. 
Saint  Brigitta,  who  lived  many  years  at  Rome,  pro- 
phesied, in  accordance  with  a  vision  imparted  to  her, 
that  first  the  sword,  then  fire,  would  come  upon  Rome, 
after  which  her  soil  was  to  be  overturned  by  the  plow.  ^ 
Saint  Francisca  Romana  (in  1439)  believed  that  the 
destruction  of  the  city  had  been  determined  by  divine 
decree,  but  supposed  that  the  calamity  had  been  sub- 
sequently averted  through  her  intercession.  Later, 
however,  she  had  another  vision,  in  which  the  fall  of 
Rome  was  shown  to  her  to  be  imminent.  ^  \ 

In  a  moral  poem,  by  an  English  monk,  Richard 
Rolle  de  Hampole,""^  a  general  separation  from  the 
Roman  Church,  which  no  one  was  henceforth  to  obey, 
was  associated  with  the  expected  destruction  of  Rome. 
About  the  same  time  it  was  believed  that  the  Ro- 
man Church  would  some  time  perpetrate  so  mon- 
strous a  crime,  that  many  churches  would  separate 
from  her,  and  then,  in  accordance  with  the  prediction 
of  Saint  Paul  (2  Thcss.  ii,  13),  the  Man  of  Sin  would 
be  revealed.  *    In  Germany,  the    catastrophe  which 

1  Bevelationes,  cd.  Antwerp.  (IGU)  p.  257. 

2  Acta  S  mclorum  Holland.  Martii  ii,  147. 

3  7'he  Pricke  of  Cunscience  :  it  was  'written  in  tlio  fourteenth  ron- 
tury  in  the  Northumbrian  dialect,  and  was  published  a  few  years 
since  in  London.     See  the  passaije  p.  111. 

4  Anselmi  Opera  (Cologne,  1G12).  2  Kpist,  Tlicssal.  i,  2,  ii,  42. 


THE  PROPHECY  ABOUT  ROME.     319 

threatened  Rome  was  transformed,  so  as  to  represent 
that  a  German  or  Roman  emperor  should  be  the 
executor  of  the  judgment  upon  the  guilty  city.  An 
emperor  was  first  to  destroy  Rome,  then  Florence,  the 
old  metropolis  of  the  Guelphs,  so  hostile  to  the  Ger- 
mans and  their  rulers.  Such  was  the  myth  and  the 
expectation  in  the  fifteenth  and  even  into  the  six- 
teenth century.  ■"' 

\  In  the  year  15 19,  when  Charles  V.  was  elected,  a 
prophecy  was  brought  from  Venice  to  England,  ^  to 
the  effect  that  the  new  emperor  would  subjugate  all 
states  and  peoples,  would  force  the  Mohammedans  to 
accept  Christianity,  after  having  destroyed  Rome  and 
Florence  by  fire,  and  would  at  last  visit  Jerusalem, 
lay  down  his  crown  upon  the  Mount  of  Olives,  and  die. 
Now  Charles  V.  burned  neither  Rome  nor  Florence, 
but,  to  please  Pope  Clement,  he  besieged  the  latter 
city  and  conquered  it ;  and  how  his  mercenaries  in 
the  year  1527  captured  and  plundered  Rome  is 
known  the  world  over. 

But  now,  Berthold,  Bishop  of  Chiemsce,  in  his  work 
"  The  Burden  of  the  Church,"  2  composed  in  the  year 
15 19,  reproduces  this  identical    prediction    with  the 

1  Sanuto  has  incorporated  it  into  his  groat  Diary.  See  Rawdon 
Brown'3  Calendar  of  State  Papers  in  Venice,  1509-19,  p,  5G6. 

2  Onus  Eccleiix,  48,  8,  cdL  1531. 


320     THE  PROPHECY  ABOUT  ROME. 

remark,  that  it  was  said  to  have  appeared  in  the  year 
1505,  in  Italy,  but  had  not  fallen  into  his  hands  until 
the  year  15 19.  When  Berthold  wrote,  Charles  had  not 
yet  been  chosen  emperor.  So  thoroughly  had  the  way 
been  prepared  in  Germany,  that  when  the  message  of 
May  6,  1527,  was  received,  the  only  emperor  who  had 
possessed  any  real  authority  for  over  a  hundred  and 
eighty  years,  seemed  to  be  seriously  thinking  of  put- 
ting the  prophecy  into  execution.  It  can  be  distinct- 
ly seen  in  the  literature  of  the  times,  that  so  extraor- 
dinary and  unheard  of  an  event, — for  such  a  fate  as  this 
had  never  befallen  another  great  city — made  but  a 
slight  impression  on  this  side  of  the  Alps.  A  much 
severer  calamity  had  been  expected. 

But  even  in  Rome  this  fatality  was  not  quite  unex- 
pected. Bartolomeo  Brandano,  hermit  of  Siena,  ap- 
peared in  the  streets  of  Rome,  not  long  before  May, 
15 17,  crying:  "Woe  to  the  city  devoted  to  destruc- 
tion, which  must  fall  a  prey  to  the  transalpine  nations, 
on  account  of  the  grave  sins  of  the  pope  and  pre- 
lates." The  pope  had  him  arrested  and  imprisoned, 
and  then  drove  him  from  the  city  with  the  threat  that 
he  should  be  thrown  into  the  Tiber  if  he  came  back 
again.  However,  Brandano  came  back  and  pro- 
claimed that  the  vengeance  of  God  would  now  visit 
the  clergy  and  the  city.  Clement  VII.,  true  to  Lis  word, 


THE  PROPHECY  ABOUT  ROME.     321 

had  him  thrown  from  the  Ponte  St.  Angelo  into  the 
stream,  but  Brandano  saved  himself.  Again  impri- 
soned, he  was  released  by  the  imperial  army,  and 
this  fulfilled  his  prediction.  He  seems  to  have 
followed  closely  on  the  heels  of  Pope  Clement,  for  as 
the  latter  journeyed  towards  Orvieto,  Brandano  again 
appeared,  and  pronounced  him  a  false  pope  (on  ac- 
count of  his  illegitimate  birth),  and  declared  his  official 
acts  and  indulgences  invalid.  ^ 

Rome  in  a  few  years  had  recovered  from  the  fearful 
stroke  of  the  year  1527,  and  soon,  in  spite  of  the  great 
rupture,  became  richer  than  she  had  been  before. 
Meantime  the  belief  that  in  future  times  she  was  des- 
tined to  an  utter  desolation  by  fire  had  become  pre- 
valent. Rome  is  now  spoken  of  as  the  Babylon  of 
the  Apocalypse,  the  harlot,  who  says  in  her  heart, 
"  I  sit  as  queen  ; "  and  the  word  of  the  Scriptures, 
yet  unfulfilled,  awaits  its  accomplishment.  As  early 
as  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  we  find  the 
statement,  that  with  the  fall  of  the  Roman  empire  would 
be  conjoined  a  release  of  the  nations  from  the  papal 

1  Gdiccianlini,  Sforia  del  Saeco  di  Roma,  in  Rcniini,  Storia  delle 
Eresie,  iv. — lliiynald,  Annales.  a.  ir>27,p.  G4S.  All  the  liistorians  of 
the  Angiistiue  C)rdcr,  to  which  I'lrandano  Ix-longcd,  speak  of  him. 
The  most  exact  accounts  arc  in  Banli's  Sloria  di  Siena,  and  IVcci's 
Notizie  Storieo-trilicha  siilta  Vita  di  B  irt.  da  I'etroio  chiamato  Bran- 
dfino,  Lncca,  1763,  p.  20.  Among  the  people  he  then  li.ad  the  re- 
pute of  sanctity,  and  liis  prophetic  mission  was  believed  in. 


322      THE  PROPHECY  ABOUT  ROME. 

chair  ;  ^  and  not  this  only,  but  the  inhabitants  of 
Rome  itself  were  to  rise  up  against  the  papacy,  which 
would  be  forced  to  take  its  seat  elsewhere,  and  then 
the  judgment  would  be  fulfilled  upon  the  city  which 
was  equally  apostate  with  the  empire.  Precisely  those 
theologians  who  were  the  most  unconditionally  de- 
voted to  the  temporal  authority  of  the  papacy  defended 
this  view.  Rome,  they  said,  has  been  an  adulteress  of 
old  ;  in  the  conflicts  between  the  popes  and  the  em- 
perors, the  Romans  have  always  shown  themselves 
rather  imperialists  than  papists.  ^  All  these  sins  of 
Rome  will,  by  and  bye,  be  requited  in  that  devastating 
c&nflagration.  '  The  entire  order  of  the  Jesuits  was  for 
a  time  in  favor  of  this  explanation  of  the  i8th  chap- 
ter of  the  Revelation, — Ribcra,  Viegas,  Lessius,  Bellar- 
mine,  *  Suarcz,  Henriquez,  Cornelius  van  de  Stcen  (a 
Lapide),  ar  "I  others. 

From  this,  it  was  necessarily  inferred  that,  before  the 

1  So,  for  example,  abbot  Engolbcrt,  B'  Ortu,  Progressu  et  Fine 
Rom.  Tm]>erii,  in  the  Bibl.  Max.  J'atrum,  vol.  xxiv. 

2  Tliis  was  certainly,  as  early  as  the  13th  century,  manifested  in  a 
variety  of  ways,  and  was  one  reason  why  the;  po))es,  after  Innocent 
IV.,  generally  kept  away  from  Home,  and  preferred  to  reside  in  the 
email  provincial  towns. 

3  This  is  especially  brought  out  by  the  Roman  Oratorian,  Thomas 
Bozio,  De  Signis  Ecclesix  I.  24,  c.  6. 

4.  I'ellarniine  is  really  wavering  between  opposite^  interpretations. 
Se(!  on  this  Malvenda,  De  Antichrislo,  i,  307,  who'excuses  him  on 
octouut  of  the  obscurity  and  dilliculty  of  the  question. 


THE  PROPHECY  ABOUT  ROME.     323 

judgment  upon  the  city,  the  papal  chair  must  be 
translated  to  some  other  place,  for  the  continuance 
of  the  papacy  was  not  a  matter  of  dispute.  Then 
the  conclusion  was  readily  drawn,  that  it  was  not 
an  indissoluble  bond,  -which  bound  together  the 
highest  ecclesiastical  dignity  and  power  with  Rome 
and  the  Roman  episcopate.  F"or  with  the  destruc- 
tion of  Rome  ended  at  least  the  Roman  episcop- 
ate, and  yet  the  Church  was  to  continue,  and  ought 
to  continue,  much  longer.  Many  consequently  were 
of  the  opinion  that,  as  Antioch,  while  Peter  resided 
there,  had  been  the  scat  of  the  primacy  before  Rome, 
and  as  there  was  no  divine  command  for  transferring 
it  from  thence  to  Rome,  so,  in  these  later  times,  the 
papal  power  might  be  transferred  to  another  city  and 
another  Church. 


'^^^(^^^^^^ 


V.  The  Characteristics  of  the  Prophets. 

Looking  more  closely  at  the  characteristics  of 
the  prophets,  we  soon  perceive  that  when  men  of 
theological  culture,  like  Joachim  and  Savonarola^ 
supposed  themselves  to  be  endowed  with  the  pro- 
phetic gift,  they  nevertheless  remained  under  the  in- 
fluence of  the  prevailing  opinions  in  the  theology  of 
the  schools,  concerning  the  nature  and  conditions  of 
this  endowment.  It  was  the  universal  teaching  of 
these  schools,  that  the  gift  of  prophecy  was,  of  itself, 
no  sign  of  especial  piety  or  sanctity  of  life ;  that  even 
bad  men  might  receive  this  gift  from  God  (they  ap- 
pealed here  to  the  Biblical  statements  concerning 
Caiaphas).  Accordingly  it  seemed  no  presumption,  nor 
to  imply  any  assumption  of  the  heroic  christian  virtues, 
for  a  man  to  lay  claim  to  the  gift  of  foreseeing  future 
events.  ^    Not  even  a  special  spiritual  endowment,  nor 

1  Thus  the  Dominican,  Bemadin  Paulini,  in  the  address  he  made 
before  Paul  IV.,  who  was  about  to  condemn  the  writings  of  Savona- 
rola, says  :  Ora  dunque,  se  Fra  Girolamo  fu  santo;  o  tristo,  ionon  ne 
parlo  ;  l)asta  che  non  6  impossibile,  ch'  egli  fusse  Profeta,  cssendo, 
come  si  sa,  date  e  concesse  le  profezie  anche  ai  tristi" ;  in  Quetif, 
Vita  P.  Ilieron  Savonarolx,  ii.  572.  The  doctrine  that  bafJ  men  may 
Bometimes  be  true  prophets  has  gone  over  into  the  canon  law: 
see  in  Gratian's  JJecrelum,  Can.  Multo;  autum,  and  Can.  Prophetavit, 
19,  1. 


CHARACTERISTICS' of  the  PROPHETS.    325 

an  unusual  susceptibility  to  spiritual  influences,  said 
the  theologians,  was  necessary  for  the  prophetic  func- 
tions. They  contested  the  opinion  of  the  Rabbis, 
who  required  of  the  prophet  a  natural  gift  and  a  high 
degree  of  insight  and  wisdom.  A  double  conscious- 
ness, however,  they  said,  must  concur,  in  order  to  con- 
stitute a  genuine  prophet.  He  must,  to  wit,  know  with 
entire  certainty  that  what  is  revealed  to  him  is 
true,  and  he  must  be  convinced  with  equal  certainty 
that  God  is  the  author  of  the  revelation.  Such  pro- 
phets as  Joachim  and  others  used  to  affirm,  it  is  true, 
that  not  the  spirit  of  the  prophets,  but  only  of  inter- 
pretation, had  been  given  to  them,  in  consequence  of 
a  higher  illumination — to  foretell  what  they  found 
announced  in  the  prophetical  books  of  the  Bible  con- 
cerning the  events  of  their  own  and  of  immediately 
succeeding  ages.  But  that  these  announcements  were 
infallibly  true,  and  that  every  event  must  certainly 
come  to  pass,  no  one,  to  my  knowledge,  affirmed. 
For  it  was  a  generally  accepted  doctrine,  that  a  seer 
might  mix  with  the  visions  imparted  by  divine  illumi- 
nation, other  elements,  not  genuine,  attributable  to 
human  agency,  merely.  Thomas  Aquinas  accord- 
ingly believed,  that  when  the  prophetic  illumination 
was  perfect,  it  brought  with  it  a  divinely  assured 
certaint\',  and  from  this  conviction  might  be  obtained 

26 


326    CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS. 

a  guarantee  of  its  heavenly  origin,  a  most  unreliable 
criterion,  since  strength  and  liveliness  of  fancy  are 
frequently  the  source  of  this  confidence.  Yet  the  rule, 
that  on  the  whole  a  prophet  has  no  guarantee  against 
self-deception,  must  be  granted  by  every  one  who  is 
even  in  a  slight  degree  acquainted  with  the  subject  of 
visions  and  revelations.  It  was  also  conceded,  on  the 
ground  of  the  Biblical  examples  of  Jonas  and  Isaiah, 
that  certain  prophetic  warnings  {propJictice  coinviiua- 
iorioe)  were  not  fulfilled,  in  case  of  the  conversion  of 
those  to  whom  the  warnings  were  addressed.  And 
it  was  also  admitted,  that  frequently  the  full  compre- 
hension of  the  prophecy  was  not  disclosed  to  him  who 
received  it,  for  the  prophet  must  ever  be  but  an  im- 
perfect instrument  in  the  hand  of  God  :  so  that  in 
many  cases  the  prophecy  itself,  as  given  by  God,  was 
true ;  but  the  organ,  the  man,  gave  it  a  false  interpret- 
ation. ^ 

It  was  not  until  the  great  ecclesiastical  and  political 
agitation  after  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century, 
that   individuals,    borne    up    by    the    waves    of  this 

1  Aquinas  brings  this  out  in  his  Summa,  2,  2  qiirest.  173,  art.  4. 
Lambcrtini,  afterwards  Popo  Benedict  XIV.,  explains  it,  in  liis  work 
JJe  Servorum  Dei  Beatificatione  (I'adtia,  1743),'  c.  iii,  p.  443,  by  refer- 
ring to  the  unfortunate  prediction  of  St.  Bernard.  This  pope  also 
says :  "  Fieri  potest,  ut  aliquis  sanctus  ex  anticipatis  opinionibus 
aut  ideis  in  phanta,sia  fi^a  uliqua  Bibi  a  Ueo  ruvulatu  putct,  qua;  a  Uuo 
Tuvclata  nou  sunt." 


CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS.    327 

movement,  were  carried  on,  in  the  full  assurance  of 
their  hearts  to  the  prophetic  announcement  of  definite 
events.  When  one  believes  himself  to  live  in  an  at- 
mosphere of  miracles,  he  may  easily  persuade  himself 
that  he  possesses  the  gift  of  prophecy,  and  such  an 
one  is  open  to  the  temptation  of  foretelling  an  earnest- 
ly-wished-for  event,  or  one  in  his  opinion  necessary 
or  suited  to  the  divine  plan  for  governing  the  world. 
Such  attempts  at  prophecy  have  usually  failed,  it  is 
true,  and  this  may  have  sobered  and  deterred  those 
that  came  afterwards.  Peter  Damiani  prophesied 
the  death  of  the  anti-pope  Cadalous,  within  a  year's 
time.  Cadalous  lived  beyond  the  year ;  and  Peter 
knew  no  better  way  of  answering  the  scoffs  of  his 
numerous  opponents  than  this :  "  Cadalous  was  de- 
posed by  a  synod,  and  that  might  be  called  death."  ^ 
The  friend  and  fellow  combatant  of  Damiani,  Pope 
Gregory  VII.,  publicly  prophesied  at  the  Easter  festi- 
val, 1080,  that  Henry,  the  German  emperor,  unless  he 
should  make  his  submission  before  June  1st,  would  be 
either  deposed  or  dead  ;  if  not,  no  one  afterwards  need 
believe  him,  the  pope.  The  result  convicted  him 
also  of  falsehood.  ^  But  the  later  chroniclers,  who 
would  vindicate  for  the  pope  the  right  of  Caiaphas,  to 

1.  Petri  Damiani  Opera,  iii,  410,  ed.  Bassan. 
2  Bonizo,  in  Oefcle,  Scnpt.  Rerum  Boic,  I,  819, 


328    CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS. 

prophesy  the  truth  as  high-priest,  even  in  opposition 
to  his  own  opinion,  discovered  a  way  of  escape.  The 
chronicle  of  San-Bavo  ^  asserts :  "  The  pope  simply 
announced  that  God  had  revealed  to  him,  that  the  false 
king  should  die  that  year.  He  supposed  it  was 
Henry,  but  the  false  king  was  Rudolph,  who  really 
died  at  that  time. " 

There  was  great  excitement  throughout  Europe, 
when  St.  Bernard,  so  distinguished  as  a  man,  and 
celebrated  as  a  saint,  was  found  to  be  a  false  prophet. 
At  the  command  of  Pope  Eugene  HI.,  he  had  pro- 
claimed a  new  crusade  in  France  and  Germany,  and 
promised  victory  and  success  in  the  name  of  God.  The 
contrary  occurred.  The  armies  were  ruined  by 
hunger,  pestilence  and  the  sword  of  Saracens ;  the 
whole  Occident  was  thrown  into  mourning,  and  Ber- 
nard saw  himself  brought  face  to  face  with  the  charge 
of  deceiving  the  people  and  leading  them  astray.  He 
could  only  say  that  the  command  of  the  pope  had 
passed  with  him  for  the  word  of  God,  and  could  only 
appeal  to  the  pope,  that  he  would  answer  for  him.  ^ 
And  he  scarcely  found  much  comfort  in  the  an- 
nouncement of  the  abbot,  John  of  Casa-Maria,  who 

1  In  the  Corpus  Chronic.  Flandrive,  ed.  de  Smct  (Brussels,  1837,) 
i,  C64. 

2  Bernardi  Consideraliones,  lib.  ii,  at  the  beginning. 


CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS.    329 

assured  him  that  the  guardian  saints  of  his  cloister, 
the  martyrs,  John  and  Paul,  had  appeared  and  dis- 
closed to  him,  that  God  had  permitted  the  fall  of  the 
christian  armies,  in  order  that  the  vacant  places  of  the 
fallen  angels  in  Paradise  might  be  filled  from  the 
souls  of  those  christian  warriors  who  had  lost  their 
lives  in  this  crusade.  ^ 

Vincens  Ferrer,  in  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  was  almost  as  much  reverenced  in  south-west- 
ern Europe,  as  a  holy  man,  and  fearless  preacher  of 
the  truth,  as  Bernard  in  his  times.  Vincens  felt 
called  to  proclaim,  before  all  things,  the  great  fact 
of  the  public  and  speedy  appearance  of  Antichrist, 
that  he  might  prepare  mankind  for  the  dreadful 
conflict.  He  was  fully  aware,  when  he  wrote  to 
Pope  Benedict  XIII.,  that  the  Antichrist  was  al- 
ready nine  years  old  ;  it  had  been  contemporaneously 
revealed  to  many  ;  demons  had  been  forced  by 
exorcism  to  declare  it.  ^  This  eloquent  Dominican 
probably  died  in  the  firm  conviction  that  within  a 
few  years  the  truth  of  his  prediction  would  be  palpable 
to  all ;  and  it  cost  the  brethren  of  his  Order,  Antoninus 

1  Epiitolfe  S.  Bernardi,  ed.  Mabillon,  epistle  386.  Wilken  in  his 
Geschichte  der  Kreuzziige,  iii,  273,  has  entirely  misunderstood  this, 
in  the  sense  of  the  tinal  restoration. 

2  The  larger  part  of  the  prophecy  of  Vincens  is  given  in  Malvenda, 
De  Antichristo,  i,  120. 


330    CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS. 

and  others,  no  little  pains  to  rescue  the  good  name  of 
the  prophet  from  the  reproach  of  presumption  and 
superstition. 

To  Saint  Catharine  of  Siena  was  accorded  by  her 
contemporaries  the  right  to  prophesy,  as  two  centuries 
before  to  the  German  Hildegarde.  But  the  world  since 
then  must  be  convince4  that  she  had  not  a  prophetic 
view  of  the  future  development  of  history.  She  foretold 
a  great  and  general  crusade  for  the  conquest  of  Pales- 
tine, and  endeavored  to  induce  Pope  Gregory  XL  to 
prepare  for  it.  The  crusade  did  not  follow.  She  an- 
nounced that  a  great  and  thorough-going  Reformation 
would  soon  pervade  the  whole  Church.^  "The  bride  (the 
Church),"  she  said,  "  now  all  deformed  and  clothed  in 
rags,  will  then  gleam  with  beauty  and  jewels,  and  be 
crowned  with  the  diadem  of  all  the  virtues.  All  believ- 
ing nations  will  rejoice  to  have  such  excellent  and 
holy  shepherds  ;  and  the  unbelieving  world,  attracted 
by  the  glory  of  the  Church,  will  be  converted  to  her." 
How  little  have  these  longings  of  the  devout  maiden 
of  Siena  been  transformed  into  history !  In  place 
of  this  great  renovation,  this  conversion  of  unchristian 
nations,  and  this  brilliant  sanctity,  we  have  had  only 
a  long  scries  of  destructive  religious  wars,  and  lasting 
sundering  of  the  greatest  and  most  vital  nationalities ! 

1  Acta  Sanctorum,  Bolland.    April  IIJ,  924. 


CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS.    331 

St.  Brlgitta,  but  a  few  years  before,  had  prophesied 
better  and  more  correctly.  She,  as  the  organ  of  the  Holy 
Virgin,  announced  a  mighty  collapse  (riiind)  of  the 
Church,  as  impending.  She  portrayed  the  breaches  in 
the  walls,  the  columns  levelled  to  the  earth,  the  great 
gaps  in  the  pavement,  and  so  forth.  ^  But  Catharine 
herself  also  appears  to  have  believed  that  the  reno- 
vation of  the  Church  would  not  in  any  case  come 
through  the  papal  chair  ;  for  she  affirmed,  that  if  a 
pope  should  attempt  to  reform  the  barbarized  clergy, 
a  great  division  would  rend  and  pervade  the  entire 
Church.  2 

Two  opposing  currents  ran  through  the  souls  of 
those  who  in  the  time  of  the  14th  and  15  th  centuries 
were  moved  to  prophecy.  On  the  one  side  the  view, 
deeply  rooted  in  the  general  religious  consciousness 
that  the  state  of  the  Church  was  altogether  unendura- 
ble, and  that  only  the  hope  of  a  great  and  impending 
reformation  could  prop  up  the  tottering  faith  in  the 
truth  of  Christianity.  On  the  other  side  was  the  feeling 
that  suitable  instruments  for  this  renovation  were  no- 
where to  be  found ;  and  that  in  the  source  whence 
they  were  to  be  expected,  namely  Rome,  there  was 

1  Revelationes,  18,  p.  293,  cd.  Antwerp. 

2  Facient  tunc  scandalum  universale  toti  ecclcsije  Dei  quod  tan- 
quam  Uitictica  pcstis  sciudct  et  triUulabit  cam,  p.  925. 


332    CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS. 

neither  inclination  nor  capacity  for  the  work.  Thus 
it  happened  that  individual  men,  as,  for  exemple, 
William  St.  Amour,  Ryckel  and  Jacobus  de  Paradiso, 
wearied  out  and  disheartened,  believed  that  there  was 
no  hope  left  for  the  Church ;  that  she  would  remain  in 
her  degradation  until  the  appearance,  so  soon  to  be 
expected,  of  the  Antichrist.  Others,  on  the  con- 
trary,— and  they  seemed  to  constitute  the  majority — 
foretold  with  confidence  a  thorough-going  purification 
and  renovation  of  the  Church,  which  her  founder  could 
not  possibly  permit  to  go  on  in  such  a  perverted  form. 
But  also,  in  harmony  with  the  prevailing  popular 
view,  it  was  expected  that  a  bloody  judgment,  a  bitter 
persecution  of  the  clergy,  and  above  all,  of  the  highest 
leaders  as  the  most  guilty,  would  precede  the  renova- 
tion of  the  Church, 

It  was  often  the  longing  for  better  things  which  led 
men  of  great  spiritual  endowments  to  predict  the  future. 
The  present  seemed  to  them  intolerable.  They 
perceived  with  pain  the  contradiction  between  their 
situation  and  the  demands  of  the  time,  which  their  reli- 
gious faith,  and  their  love  of  country  forced  them  to 
recognize.  As  with  nations  so  with  individuals.  With 
this  longing,  a  presentiment  was  generally  associated, 
that  the  times  lay  in  the  pains  of  child-birth ;  that 
humanity  stood  upon  the  borders  of  great  changes  and 


CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS.    333 

transformations.  Savonarola  at  first  was  himself  terri- 
fied by  the  impulse  to  prophecy  which  gradually  over- 
powered him  and  controlled  his  thinking  and  action. 
"  I  do  not  desire,"  said  he,  "  to  be  taken  for  a  prophet, 
for  that  is  a  weighty  and  dangerous  name,  makes  a  man 
restless,  and  arouses  against  him  many  persecutions, 
even  though  for  the  love  of  Christ  he  may  be  willing 
to  endure  them."  ^  "  You  force  me,"  cried  he  after- 
wards to  the  Florentines,  "  to  be  a  prophet."  ^  "  The 
sins  of  Italy  open  my  mouth.  An  inward  fire  con- 
sumes my  bones  and  forces  me  to  speak." 

How  different  from  Savonarola,  and  yet  kindred 
with  him,  was  another  prophet  of  the  Dominican 
order,  the  learned  arid  profound  Campanella,  a  man  of 
genius.  In  him  also,  the  prophetic  office  must  go  hand 
in  hand  with  political  efforts.  To  him,  a  Calabrian, 
the  misfortunes  of  his  narrow  native  land,  Calabria, 
as  well  as  the  condition  of  the  whole  of  Lower 
Italy,  then  oppressed  by  Spanish  rule,  weighed  heavi- 
ly upon  his  heart.  He  saw  his  people  humiliated  by 
an  oppression  which  a  modern  writer,  well  acquainted 
with  Italian  affairs,  has  characterized  as  perhaps  the 
most  wretched  that  has  existed  in  christian  timcs.^  He 

1  Compendium  Revelationum,p.  274. 

2  In  his  Prediche  fatle  Vanno  del  1496,  f.  359. 

3  fSee  Ganganelli,  seine  Briefe  und  seine  Zeit,  by  Von  Eeuniont,  au- 
thor ofthc  Romische  Brie/i;  Berlin,  1847,  p.  S^. 


334    CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS. 

said  that  Southern  Italy  must  become  a  republic  under 
the  theocratic  dominion  of  the  Papacy  ;  and  in  order  to 
gain  partisans  and  confederates,  he  foretold  (basing 
his  prophecies  upon  the  predictions  of  Joachim,  Bri- 
gitta,  Savonarola,  and  on  his  exposition  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse), a  transformation  of  Italy,  to  occur  in  the  year 
1600.  Like  Savonarola,  he  said  at  the  same  time : 
"  I  do  not  make  myself  out  a  prophet,  and  a  wonder- 
worker, and  yet  I  see,  perhaps,  some  great  things."  ^ 
Speedily  betrayed,  his  undertaking  failed.  He  spent 
twenty-seven  years  in  fifty  different  prisons ;  he  was 
seven  times  stretched  on  the  rack,  until  at  last  he 
found  an  asylum  in  France.  Did  then  the  result,  the 
external  quiet  of  Italy  during  the  year  1600,  unde- 
ceive him  in  regard  to  the  truth  of  his  prophecies  .''  In 
the  beautiful  and  stirring  poems  in  which  he  breathed 
forth  the  changing  moods  of  his  long  prison  life, 
his  anxiety  and  his  hope,  his  trust  in  God,  and  his 
despair,  he  raises  his  complaint  towards  God  :  "  Shall 
then  the  host  of  the  prophets,  whom  thou  scndest,  lie  .-*  ^ 
Wherefore  dost  thou  let  the  stars  and  the  prophets, 
Thy  gifts,  alike  become  delusive  teachers  .-*"  ^    In  the 

1  In  tlie  Prooemium  to   his   Atheismus    Triumphatus,  in  Struvii 
Collectanea  ManuscTiptornm  (Jena,  1713),  li,  G8. 

2  Poesie  Filosojiche  di  Campanella,  pubbl.daG.  C.Orelli  (Lngano 
1834),  Madrigale,  viii,  p.  IGl. 

3  Wudiigalc,  i,  p.  14-t. 


CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS.    335 

book  which  he  wrote  in  prison,  "  The  Spanish  Mo- 
narchy," Campanella  still  shows  himself  full  of  faith  in 
prophecy  ;  and  lays  special  emphasis  on  the  assertion 
that  St.  Brigitta  foretold  the  discovery  of  America. 

A  man  in  whom  we  may  distinctly  trace  the  effects 
of  pain  and  disappointment  produced  by  earnest 
reflection  ending  at  last  in  prophetic  vision,  was 
Dionysius  Ryckel  (or  Leewis),  styled  the  ecstatic 
teacher,  a  priest,  of  the  deepest  and  most  earnest  piety, 
and  at  the  same  time  the  most  learned  theologian  of 
his  age.  Like  all  the  men  of  insight  in  Germany, 
like  his  friend  and  patron  Nicolas  of  Cusa,  he  shared 
fully  in  the  view  of  the  Church  as  to  the  neces- 
sity of  councils  and  of  their  authority  over  the  popes. 
His  hopes,  like  those  of  all  others,  rested  upon  a  new 
council,  which  he  saw  at  the  same  time  the  popes 
tried  to  prevent  with  all  their  shrewdness  and  power. 

This  continual  and  torturing  contemplation  of  the 
condition  of  the  Church  and  the  world  (in  the  year 
146 1 )  led  him  to  visions  and  revelations  ;  and  he  came 
to  see,  in  converse  with  the  divine  Master  (what  was 
the  product  of  his  own  reflections),  that  the  measure 
of  impending  chastisements  and  judgments  would  be 
accurately  dealt  out,  according  to  the  measure  of  the 
present   ecclesiastical  corruption.  ^     It  was  revealed 

1  Opufiila  Insigniora  Dionyaii  Corthusiani,  Doctoris  Est  'tici  (Co- 
logne, 1559),  p.  747.    Here  are  fount!  the  three  "  levelatioueij." 


336    CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS. 

to  him  that  the  Church  was  utterly  backslidden  and 
perverted  ;  from  the  crown  of  the  head  to  the  sole  of 
the  foot  there  was  no  soundness  to  be  found  in  by  far 
the  larger  part.  As  to  her  leaders,  even  should  they 
swear  to  reform,  they  would  but  forswear  themselves. 
It  was  the  time  (1461)  of  the  vain  attempt  of  Pope 
Pius  II.  to  bring  about  a  christian  crusade  against 
the  Turks,  after  the  loss  of  Constantinople.  Diony- 
sius  prophesied  that  all  these  efforts  must  come  to 
naught,  as  actually  happened.  It  was  even  expected, 
with  a  certain  deep  sense  of  guilt,  that  a  Turkish  ar- 
my would  soon  sweep  over  the  Latin  and  German  na- 
tions of  the  West. 

Ryckel's  contemporary  and  friend,  the  deepest 
thinker  of  his  time,  Cardinal  Nicolas  of  Cusa,  like 
him  also  became  a  prophet  without  precisely  claiming 
for  his  declarations  a  high  degree  of  illumination. 
Cusa  also  had  a  clear  perception  of  the  deep  corrup- 
tion of  the  Church,  and  of  its  prime  cause,  the  des- 
potic and  avaricious  Papacy,  as  it  then  was.  Thus 
he  also  came  to  the  convictions,  which,  after  he  had 
outlived  the  failures  of  the  reformatory  councils,  he 
delivered  in  the  form  of  prophecy :  "  The  Church 
would  sink  still  deeper,  until  she  should  at  last  seem 
to  be  extinguished,  and  the  succession  of  Peter  and 


CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS.    337 

the  other  apostles  to  have  expired.  ^  But  after  that 
she  will  be  victoriously  exalted  in  the  sight  of  all 
doubters."  ^ 

There  were  other  visionary  prophets,  to  whom  the 
future  was  only  revealed  in  symbolic  pictures,  of  the 
signification  of  which,  however,  they  were  assured 
Avith  inward  certainty.  Of  such  were  the  Dominican 
Robert  of  Usez,  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
and  the  German  priest  and  founder  of  a  monastic  or- 
der, Bartholomew  Holzhauser,  in  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  This  order  affirmed  of  Robert 
that  he  was  endowed  from  his  youth  with  the  spirit 
of  prophecy,  and  had  been  continually  accompanied 
by  the  same  ;  that  his  gift  had  been  formally  tested  at 
an  assembly  of  his  Order  at  Carcassone,  in  the  year 
1293,  and  that,  on  account  of  the  satisfactory  charac- 
ter of  his  answers,  he  had  been  commissioned  to  jour- 
ney through  France,  Italy  and  Germany  as  preacher 
and  prophet.  While  Robert  beheld,  especially  in  sym- 
bols, the  corruption  of  the  Church  and  of  the  papal 
chair,  Holzhauser's  visions  reflected  the  longings  of  a 
man  of  narrow  views,  desiring  to  correct  the  history  of 

1  "  Nulla  mfjordiT'oriiiitas  ab  nliqiio  potorit  cxoriri,  qnnm  ab 
illo,  qui,  snv  ma<;n  «  potcstatis  intuitu  liccro  fibi  cuncta  crodi  ns,  in 
subditoruin  jura  prorunipct,"  are  hia  words  in  Concordia  Cal/ioL,  2, 
27,  p.  729,  cd.  15asel. 

8  O^era,  liasle  edition,  p.  932. 
29 


338    CHARACTERISTICS  of  the  PROPHETS. 

the  world,  because  the  course  and  the  consequences  of 
the  Thirty  Years'  War  had  assumed  quite  a  different 
aspect  from  that  which  his  opinions  required.  His 
commentary  on  the  Apocalypse,  which  formerly  had 
many  believing  readers,  is  written  in  the  same  spirit. 


■*^^^^^ 


VI.  The  Cosmopolitical  Prophecies. 

Turning  now  to  that  class  of  prophecies  which  I 
have  styled  the  "  cosmopolitical,"  we  may  distinguish 
four  periods.  The  first  extends  from  the  Carlovingian 
times  to  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century.  The  second 
period,  the  Joachimist,  extends  over  the  thirteenth 
and  half  of  the  fourteenth  centuries.  The  third  divi- 
sion covers  that  gloomy  time  from  about  1347  to 
1450 ;  this  was  the  time  of  the  Black  Death,  the  Papal 
Schism,  and  of  the  brightening  expectation,  soon  to  be 
extinguished  in  darkness,  of  the  renovation  of  the 
Church  by  means  of  councils.  Then  followed  the  fourth 
prophetic  epoch,  comprising  a  period  of  about  77  years, 
from  1450  to  15 17.  In  this,  the  prophecies  are  wholly 
filled  with  the  thought  of  the  judgments  impending 
over  Rome,  popes  and  clergy,  and  with  longings  for 
the  reformation  of  the  Church ;  so  that  at  last,  this 
prophetic  expectation  became  the  common  conscious- 
ness, the  saving  anchor  of  faith,  of  all  earnest  religious 
spirits. 

In  the  first  period,  in  the  ninth  and  tenth  centu- 
ries, and  until  the  middle  of  the  eleventh,  the  coming 
of  Antichrist  and  the  approaching  end  of  the  world 

S39 


340    COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

are  the  well-nigh  exclusive  objects  of  men's  presenti- 
ments. As  life  in  great  cities,  and  popular  literature, 
were  not  yet  developed,  and  as  there  were  thus  no 
important  centres  of  spiritual  growth — we  are  here 
restricted  to  the  aid  of  ideas  prevailing  in  cloisters. 
In  this  seclusion,  men  did  not  look  either  backwards 
or  forward,  but  chiefly  from  presages,  or  from  phy- 
sical and  moral  phenomena  not  understood,  they 
formed  their  conclusions  as  to  the  speedy  termina- 
tion of  the  v/orld's  history,  with  no  presentiment 
or  comprehension  of  its  goal  or  of  its  progressive 
culture.  There  was  but  one  fundamental  thought  in 
this  and  the  following  time,  that  the  existence  and  du- 
ration of  the  present  order  of  the  world  were  indis- 
solubly  bound  up  with  the  continuance  of  the  Roman 
empire,  as  this  was  renewed  in,  or  made  over  to,  the 
Carlovingian  dynasty,  and  after  its  overthrow  to  Ger- 
many and  its  kings.  It  was  accordingly  styled  the 
Holy  Roman  Empire  of  the  German  Nation,  for  it 
was  held  to  be  the  all-supporting  keystone  of  the 
christian  world,  which  could  not  be  abandoned  until 
the  process  of  the  world's  dissolution  began.  While 
this  kingdom  lasted,  and  the  people  did  not  desert  it, 
the  last  day  was  still  distant, — so  they  believed  and 
thus  they  spoke.  And  hence  that  general  fear  or  ex- 
pectation that  Antichrist  would  soon  come,  and  that 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES.    341 

the  end  of  all  things  was  near  {appropinquante  innndi 
tcrmino,  as  the  formula  run).  About  the  beginning 
of  the  eleventh  century,  the  minds  of  men  were  dis- 
tressed, not  only  because  the  histoiy  of  the  Church 
had  passed  through  a  thousand  years,  but  still  more 
because  the  kingdom  which  Otto  I.  had  exalted  to 
such  a  position  of  power  and  glory,  appeared,  on  the 
death  of  his  powerless  uncle.  Otto  .III.,  ready  to  fall 
in  pieces. 

The  most  prominent  prophetical  authorities  of  this 
time  were  Methodius  from  the  Byzantine  Orient,  and 
St.  Hildegarde.  Under  the  name  of  that  distinguished 
Bishop  of  Patara,  in  Lycia,  who  suffered  martyrdom 
in  the  persecution  under  Diocletian,  the  so-called 
"  Re  clations "  first  came  to  light,  probably  in  the 
eleventh  century  in  Constantinople.  The  author's 
name  can  scarcely  have  been  Methodius,  as  was 
assumed.  He  simply  put  his  productions  into  the 
lips  of  that  teacher  of  the  Church,  who  had  written 
a  celebrated  commentary  on  the  Apocalypse.  The 
writing  was  adapted  to  the  Byzantine  Greeks,  and 
was  designed  to  administer  comfort,  courage  and 
hope,  in  the  time  of  a  manifestly  increasing  weak- 
ness of  the  Eastern  empire,  and  when  the  domi- 
nion of  the  Mohammedans  was  extending  its  sway 
over  the  whole  of  Asia.     Methodius  announced  the 


342     COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

victory  and  conquests  of  the  Ishmaelites  (Arabs) 
breaking  forth  from  the  desert.  God  had  given  them 
victory,  and  allowed  them  to  subjugate  so  many  chris- 
tian lands  and  nations  as  a  punishment  for  the  sins  of 
the  laity  and  clergy.  But  still  the  Empire  of  Rome,  as 
the  author  and  all  his  countrymen  designated  the  By- 
zantine (East  Roman  or  Greek)  Empire,  shall  not  be 
eternally  overthrown  by  any  power ;  its  weapons  are 
invincible,  and  it  shall  subdue  all  kingdoms  at  last.  Ac- 
cordingly, an  emperor  and  his  son  are  to  fall  upon  the 
Ishmaelites,  when  they  fancy  themselves  most  secure, 
and  suddenly  wrest  from  them  all  their  previously 
conquered  lands,  and  impose  upon  them  a  yoke  of 
servitude  a  hundredfold  worse  than  that  with  which 
they  have  oppressed  the  Christians.  Finally,  the  last 
of  the  Roman  (i.  e.  Byzantine)  emperors  is  to  journey 
towards  the  emancipated  Jerusalem,  and  there  lay  his 
crown  at  the  feet  of  Christ.  Then  comes  the  end  of  all 
things,  Gog  and  Magog,  and  Antichrist,  and  the  last 
judgment. 

This  representation  of  the  abdication  of  the  last 
monarch  in  Jerusalem  is  also  found  in  the  Occident,  ■ 
in  a  writing  of  the  Abbot  Adso,  composed  about  the 
year  948,  at  the  request  of  Queen  Gerberga.  Since  the 
empire  was  not  until  some  years  later  (in  961)  trans- 
ferred to  the  Germans,  one  of  the  Frank  kings  was  here 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES.    343 

represented  as  the  last  and  most  powerful  of  the 
emperors,  who  was  to  bring  to  a  close  the  course  of  his- 
tory in  such  a  devout  and  humble  style.  For,  said 
the  abbot  of  Moutier-en-Der,  "  the  Roman  king- 
dom is  almost  destroyed,  to  be  sure,  but  it  will  survive  ^ 
in  the  kings  of  the  Franks.  (A  Carlovingian  is 
meant ;  for  the  house  of  Capet  had  not  at  that  time  yet 
arisen.) 

But  Methodius  now  essentially  controlled  the  views 
of  the  Occident  concerning  the  course  of  the  world's 
history  ;  for  in  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century,  a 
Latin  translation  of  his  prophecies  must  have  been  in 
circulation.  The  Turks  had  then  displaced  the 
Ishmaelites  (Arabs) ;  the  Roman  kingdom  and  the 
Roman  emperor  were  naturally  made  to  refer  to  Ger- 
many and  Italy,  and  the  emperors  of  German  birth. 
Thus  was  Mpthodius  the  original  source  of  those  ex- 
pectations cherished  even  until  modern  times,  that  the 
Turks  would  yet  some  time  sweep  over  the  whole  of 
Germany,  and  their  horses  drink  the  waters  of  the 
Rhine.  Even  Otto  of  Freisingen,  in  his  preface  to  his 
Chronicles,  addressed  to  Chancellor  Reinhold,  intro- 
duces Methodius  as  authority  for  the  continuance  of 

1  This  work  is  in  the  Appendix  to  the  Benedictine  edition  of  Au- 
gustine, iv,  243. 


344     COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

the  Roman  empire  which  was  to  be  fully  destroyed 
only  at  the  end  of  time. 

Another  view,  deeply  imprinted  upon  the  fancy  of 
the  Middle  Ages,  was  drawn  from  the  same  source. 
From  Rev.  xx,  lo,  it  was  inferred  that  heathen 
nations,  from  far  distant  regions,  Gog  and  Magog 
(Scythians)  would,  at  the  end  of  time,  gather  together 
against  the  New  Jerusalem,  and  be  by  her  destroyed. 
Now,  according  to  Methodius,  Alexander  the  Great 
had  formerly  shut  up  the  race  of  Gog  and  Magog  in 
the  Caspian  mountains  by  a  miracle  ;  but  the  mountains 
were  some  time  to  open  again,  and  then  this  stream 
of  wild  conquerors  and  avengers  would  be  poured 
forth  over  the  world.  There  was  in  this  a  presenti- 
ment of  the  great  Mongolian  irruption  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  and  yet  the  myth  is  found  in  the  Syrian 
poem  of  a  Jacobite  of  the  end  of  the  sixth  century. 
There  it  is  God  himself  who  is  described  as  opening 
the  door  of  the  rocks  for  the  ruin  of  the  nations.  ^ 
Now  the  chronicles  of  Alberich  in  the  year  1237  ^  an- 
nounce, that  the  Minorite  Peter  de  Borcth  had  from 
Acre  declared,  that  the  Antichrist  was  already  grow- 
ing up,  and  would  be  ten  years  old  in  March.  It  was 
added  in   connection   therewith,  that  this  was  impos- 

1  The  Revelation  ofJexw  6// John  Hooper  (London,   18G1),  ii,  438. 

2  In  the  Recueil  des  Historiens  de  la  France,  xxi,  596. 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES.    345 

sible,  since  the  tower  of  Babel  must  first  be  rebuilt, 
the  closed  Caspian  mountains  must  open,  the  river 
Ethan  flow,  and  the  idol  of  Mohammed  fall  to  pieces  ; 
that  is,  Islamism  was  to  die  out  or  decay. 

The  Latin  text  of  Methodius  must  also  have  varied 
very  much,  with  reference  to  the  last  things.  That 
feature,  that  the  last  emperor  of  the  Frank  race  was 
to  go  to  Jerusalem,  lay  his  crown  upon  the  mount  of 
Olives  and  there  die,  is  certainly  not  found  m  the 
original  Greek.  This  originated  in  the  tenth  century, 
from  a  writing  by  the  monk  Adso,  which  was  generally 
taken  in  the  middle  ages  for  a  work  of  the  Arch- 
bishop Rabanus  of  Maycnce.  But  this  addition  was 
variously  given.  According  to  Engelbert  of  Admcnt,  ^ 
Methodius  said  :  "  The  last  emperor  would  be  in- 
capable of  withstanding  the  Ishmaelites  (Mohammed- 
ans), and  would  lay  down  his  sceptre,  crown,  and 
shield  on  a  withered  tree,  beyond  the  sea,  and  there 
give  up  the  ghost."  The  history  of  the  world,  accord- 
ing to  this  view,  was  to  terminate  (before  the  Anti- 
christ) with  a  great  victory  of  Islam  over  the  Christian 
faith.  A  view,  so  dispiriting,  so  conducive  to  doubt, 
led  Engelbert  to  the  remark  :  "  The  doctors,  it  is  true, 
out  of  reverence  for   the  holy  martyr  (the  supposed 

1  De  Ortu  et  Fine  Rom.  Imperii,  in  the  Bibliolh.  PF.  Lugdun,. 
XXV .  378. 


346     COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

author)  did  not  venture  to  reject  it,  and  yet  attributed 
little  weight  to  it."  It  was  certainly  not  found  in  the 
manuscripts,  for  in  the  printed  editions  the  course  of 
the  last  days  is  given  quite  differently.  ^  The  Ishmael- 
ites  or  Turks  are  completely  conquered  and  subjug- 
ated ;  but  the  Christians  immediately  fall,  during  a 
long  and  all  too  happy  condition  of  peace  and  pros- 
perity, into  fleshly  security  and  luxury,  until  Gog  and 
Magog  set  on  foot  a  fearful  slaughter,  whereupon 
the  Roman  king  proceeds  towards  Golgotha,  takes 
his  crown  from  his  head,  lays  it  upon  the  cross,  an  J 
restores  the  kingdom  of  the  Christians  to  God  the 
Father.  Thus  the  shame  was  at  least  averted  of 
a  final  victory  over  the  Christians  by  their  ancient 
hereditary  foe,  the  Turks,  and  Methodius  remained, 
especially  for  the  Germans,  a  book  of  comfort  and  of 
hope.  Sebastian  Brandt  says  in  the  preface,  in  the 
year  1497  :  "  I  give  it  over  to  the  press,  because,  as  I 
hope,  the  promised  triumph  of  the  christian  republic 
over  the  unbelievers  and  Turks,  is  now  quite  near." 
And  in  the  year  15 18  the  warning  cry  still  went  forth 
to  Emperor  Maximilian,  2 

"  Give  ear,  o  king,  for  God  hath  called 
That  thou  ih:  suffering  christian  world 

1  In  the  Orthodoxographa  cBascl,  1555,)  p.  397,  and  in  the  edition 
of  Sebastian  Brandt.  P.asle,  1504. 

2  In  LilicucroD,  III,  215. 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES.    347 

May'st  bring  again  unto  its  right. 
How  oft  to  arm  thee  to  the  fight. 
Hath  He  His  holy  servant  sent, 
Methodius,  to  this  intent."  1 

After  this  it  was  added,  that  it  had  been  prophesied 
of  an  Emperor  Maximilian,  that  he  should  fill  the 
Holy  Land  with  christian  faith  still, — another  of  the 
many  hopes  which  remained  unrealized. 

In  another  writing  composed  by  the  Dominicans  in 
the  year  1474,  in  order  to  console  the.  Christians  for 
the  fall  of  Constantinople,  ^  Methodius,  the  "  Doctor 
authenticus",  as  he  is  here  styled,  is  again  the  chief 
authority,  ^  of  course  not  in  the  form  in  which  Engel- 
bert  read  him,  but  in  the  more  encouraging  text.  Here 
it  was  related,  that  many  fathers  had  subjected  Metho- 
dius to  a  careful  investigation,  the  result  of  which  was 
now  imparted.  Germany  and  France  would  be  de- 
vastated by  internal  wars,  but  should  not  fall  under  the 

1  Kaiser,  Schick  dich,  Gott  will  dir  hel^ 
Dass  du  die  armen  Christenwelf 
Widerumb  bringcst  zu  einem  rccht ; 
Das  hab  dir  Gott  den  seinin  Knecht 
Zu  schanen  manigvalt  gesant, 
Methodius  war  er  genant. 

2  Qui  pro  fide  maneifatus  carcerilus  angelo  sibi  revelante  librun 
ennscripsit,  is  added.  (Who  enslaved  for  the  faith,  wrote  a  book  in 
prison,  an  angel  revealing  unto  him.)  In  that  ca.se  certainly  every 
word  must  have  been  infallible,  and  still  be  going  into  fulfilment. 

3  Tractatus  quidam  de  Turcis,  prout  ad  praesens  Ecclesia  sanct* 
ab  eis  aliligitur  (Nuiemburg,  1481). 


348     COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

Turkish  yoke.  Whether  Rome  would  be  conquered 
by  the  Turks,  had  been  asked  by  an  enlightened 
monk,  worthy  to  receive  divine  revelations,  to  whom 
Christ  had  answered,  that  it  was  not  at  present  advi- 
sable that  he  should  know  this,  nor  who  should  be 
the  victor  in  the  next  Turkish  war. 

The  first  of  the  prophets  of  more  recent  times  was 
Saint  Hildegarde  of  Bingen  on  the  Rhine.  This 
German  prophetess  stands  alone,  in  a  peculiar  position, 
actually  attained  by  no  other  in  the  entire  christian 
history.  No  prophet  has  ever  acquired  so  high  con- 
sideration, no  saint  so  general  confidence,  or  such 
unbounded  reverence,  ^ — not  Bernard  himself,  who 
paid  reverence  to  her  as  the  more  highly  gifted,  al- 
though she  was  neither  spared  from  attacks,  suspicions, 
nor  even  scorn  and  ridicule.  Her  character  and  her 
revelations  were  investigated  at  a  great  assembly  of 
the  Church,  presided  over  by  Pope  Eugene  III.,  and 
guaranteed  and  accepted  as  genuine.  Three  popes, 
two  emperors,  many  bishops  and  abbots  came  to  ask 
council  of  her,  hoping  that  divine  revelations  might  be 
through  her  imparted  to  them  ;  and  it  is  worthy  of  note, 
that  in  the  letters  addressed  to  her  by  Popes  Eugene, 

1  Fainosissima  ilia  prophelis-sa  Novi  Testamcntl,  cum  qufi  familia- 
ritcr  locutus  est  Duus  ;  so  wrote  the  author  of  the  Vita  S.  Gerlaci,  in 
the  Acta  Sanctorum,  5.  Januar.  c.  8. 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES.    349 

Anastasius  and  Hadrian  IV.,  there  still  remains  a 
breath  of  genuine  humility,  and  recognition  of  their 
own  fallibility  and  neglect  of  duty,  ^  Bernard  still 
ventured  to  write  his  book,  and  to  warn  the  papacy, 
although  in  vain,  against  the  fearful  strides  it  was  mak- 
ing in  the  path  of  despotism  and  centralization.  Hil- 
degarde  was  in  this  respect  a  true  German  prophetess, 
in  that,  as  none  of  her  sex  before  or  since  have  done, 
she  portrayed  the  spontaneous  ethical  uprising  of  the 
Germanic  nationalities,  rather  than  of  the  Latin  race, 
against  the  degeneracy  and  the  abominations  of  an 
insatiable  and  avaricious  hierarchy,  corrupting  the 
life  of  humanity, — a  state  of  things  which  then  was 
not  developed  to  such  a  degree  as  was  portrayed,  but 
which  was  wide  spread  after  the  thirteenth  century. 
The  time  was  to  come,  she  said,  when  princes  and 
people  would  renounce  the  authority  of  the  papacy, 
because  religion  is  found  in  her  no  more  ;  then  would 
separate  countries  prefer  their  own  church  rulers  to 
the  Pope;  the  latter,  with  greatly  diminished  reve- 
rence, would  be  confined  to  Rome,  and  a  few  surroun- 
ding places.  2     Hildegarde  also  foretold  the  breaking 

1  For  example,  Engone  III.  wrote  to  her,  that  he  rejoiced  that  in 
these  times  God  had  illumined  her  by  his  Spirit,  and  given  to  her  s  > 
great  insight  ;  sed  quid  nos  ad  ha  c  dicere  valeinus,  qui  clavini  scicn- 
ti:e  habentes,  ita  qtiod  claudere  et  aperire  possimus  ct  hoc  prudenter 
facere  per  stultitiam  negligimus. 

2  Quia  enim  nee  principes  ucc  reliqui  homines  tam  spiritalis  quam 

30 


350     COSMOPOLITJCAL  PROPHECIES. 

up  of  the  Gerrrmn  Empire;  each  people  and  each  race 
would  have  its  own  princes,  under  the  pretext 
"  that  the  magnitude  of  the  kingdom  had  become 
rather  a  burden  than  an  honor;"  and  just  this  division, 
and  diminution  of  the  strength  of  the  empire,  would 
entail  the  fall  of  the  papal  dignity. 

Hildegarde  incontestably  had  much  to  do  with  the 
fact,  that  in  the  middle  ages  the  expectation  of  a  great 
judgment  upon  the  clergy,  and  a  bloody  persecution 
of  the  priests,  was  so  deeply  fixed  in  the  mind  of  the 
German  nation.  She  even  foretold  a  great  and  uni- 
versal secularization  of  the  property  of  the  Church,  and 
a  return  of  the  clergy,  ruined  by  riches  and  avarice, 
to  moderate  and  more  equally  divided  incomes.  In  a 
poem  of  the  fifteenth  century  upon  the  council  of 
Constance,  it  was  said  of  her  descriptions  of  simony 
and  clerical  luxury : 

"  How  sadly  their  course  hath  marred. 
From  Bingen,  saith  Saint  Hildegarde, 
Within  her  book  of  wit  and  taste. 
Who  reads,  hath  well  the  truth  embraced  !  "  1 

Yet  Italy  was  the  land  where  the  prophetic  spirit, 

f«rcularis  ordinis  in  Apostolico  nomine  nilani  relipioncm  time  invc- 
ni<nf,  (iignitntcm  noniiiiis  illiiis  tunc  iniiiiincnt,  etc.  Liber  JL)ivino~ 
rum  O/'erumj  in  I'aluzc,  Miscalanea,  ed.  Mansi,  ii,  447. 

1  Wic  liat  dcnKch'dlich  kl "plich  Lauf 
Gcsait  von  Hingcn  lliltpart 
In  Ilinm  Bucli,  die  wilz,(Jic  zart, 
Wcr  ir  J!ii<  h  licst,  dafs  man's  wol  liriistf 

(Lilitucron, /Ai^onacAe  l'olkdieder,i,  248.) 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES.    351 

especially  since  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century 
and  without  cessation  until  the  end  of  the  fourteenth, 
grew  most  luxuriantly.  In  no  country  was  there  then  a 
life  so  rich  and  manifold,  and  such  a  wrestling  of  all 
powers  and  passions.  There  Imperialism  and  Papacy 
for  more  than  two  centuries  fought  with  one  another 
like  two  giants;  there  France  and  Germany  contended 
for  the  mastery,  now  openly  and  now  in  secret. 
Through  entire  upper  and  middle  Italy  prevailed  the 
irreconcilable  feud  between  the  two  parties,  the  Guelphs 
and  the  Ghibelline'^,  from  which  no  one  high  or  low 
could  stand  al  )of.  While  the  mighty  devoted  them- 
selves to  astrology,  and  not  seldom,  like  Frederick 
Kzzelino,  kept  their  court  astrologers,  and  never  entered 
upon  any  important  undertaking  without  first  having 
consulted  the  favorable  constellations,  the  people  rioted 
in  prophetic  proverbs.  Guelphs  as  well  as  Ghibellines 
had  their  own  prophecies.  Merlin  and  the  Sybil  had 
to  lend  their  names,  which  had  become  typical,  to  the 
continually  fresh  productions  which  were  called  forth 
by  the  powerful  popular  demand  for  prophecy.  Mi- 
chael Scoto,  the  astrologer  of  the  Emperor  Frederick, 
Asdenta  of  Parma,  and  especially  Joachim,  stood  in 
high  esteem.  Sibylline  prophecies  were  all  the  more 
confidently  trusted  since  it  was  believed  that  the  Si- 
bylline books  were  still  preserved  in  the  Lateran  church 


352     COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

at  Rome.  ^  Scoto  and  Asdenta  were  by  Dante 
placed  among  the  damned  as  false  prophets  ;  and  the 
latter,  a  shoemaker  of  Parma,  he  represents  as  in  hell, 
repenting  that  he  had  not  kept  to  his  trade.  His  con- 
lemporary,  Salimbene,  however,  reported  that  he 
heard  much  from  him  which  afterwards  occurred  ;  and 
i  Iso  that  Asdenta,  solely  by  the  diligent  perusal  of  the 
writings  of  the  classic  prophets  of  the  time,  Methodius 
and  Joachim,  together  with  the  sayings  of  Merlin, 
Scoto  and  the  Sybils,  had  cultivated  the  art  of  pro- 
phecy. 2 

In  Germany,  Hildegai-de  stood  a  long  time  un- 
rivalled. From  her  death  until  towards  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century  and  even  into  the  fourteenth, 
no  utterances  of  the  prophetic  impulse  and  spirit 
worthy  of  mention  are  preserved  among  the  Germans. 
All  of  the  German  literature,  it  is  true,  from  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  until  its  close,  was 
very  barren  as  well  in  the  Latin  as  in  the  German 
tongue,  and  yet  more  barren  and  fragmentary  are  the 
historic  documents  and  chronicles  which  we  possess  of 
this  period.  But  one  and  the  same  event  of  world- 
wide significance  was,  for  both    Germany  and   Italy, 

1  Huillard  Bieholles,  Preface,  p.  xxxvi,  in  his  edition  of  the  ChrO' 
nicon  I'lucenlinum,  Paris,  1856. 

2  Salimbene,  Chron.,  p.  284,  in  the  Monumenta  Hist.  Parmens.  (Par- 
ma, 1857). 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES.    353 

equally  decisive  and  momentous  ;  although  Italy  was 
at  first  plunged,  in  a  far  higher  degree  than  Germany, 
into  incurable  disasters  in  consequence  of  the  same. 
That  event  was  the  victory  of  the  Papacy  over  the 
Empire, — the  fall  and  overthrow  of  the  House  of  the 
Hohenstaufen,  with  which  was  connected  the  regularly 
planned  weakening  and  sundering  of  the  Romano- 
Germanic  empire  by  the  popes,  resulting  to  the  ad- 
vantage of  the  Curia,  of  the  French  kings,  and  of  the 
Italian  Guelphic  party.  It  was  clearly  seen  that  the 
popes,  especially  the  French  popes,  and  Urban  IV., 
Clement  IV.,  Martin  IV.,  did  everything  to  prevent  the 
formation  in  Germany  of  any  unity,  of  any  powerful 
royal  house,  of  any  firm  and  well  ordered  government 
of  the  empire.  It  was  speedily  recognized  that  in 
consequence  of  this  procedure  of  the  popes,  an  em- 
peror in  the  true  sense  could  not  be  obtained  by 
election,  and  that  a  Guelph  kingdom  in  Lower  Italy 
supported  by  French  authority  was  impossible.  And 
yet  it  belonged  to  the  religious  consciousness  of  the 
world  at  that  day,  which  regarded  the  empire  as  an 
indispensable  constituent,  an  organ  of  the  one  Catholic 
Church,  that  its  dissolution  would  lead  to  a  general 
falling  away  from  the  papal  chair  ;  for  a  three-fold 
disccssio  according  to  2  Thcs.  ii,  was  universally  ac- 
cepted viz  :  ab  iwperio,  a  sede  apostolico,  a  fide  ;  so  that 


354    COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

it  seemed  to  many  that  the  popes  were  laboring,  as  if 
driven  by  a  fataHty  and  an  irresistible  impulse  of  the 
stars,  to  undermine  their  own  authority.  Hence  the 
certainty,  that  the  fall  of  the  kingdom  would  introduce 
the  outbreak  of  the  rule  of  Antichrist,  with  all  its  in- 
describable series  of  abominations  and  apostasies.  The 
judgment  of  contemporaries  presents  to  us  the  key  to 
the  origin  of  the  prophecies  of  the  time  and  of  their 
influence. 

In  England,  where  there  then  was  more  historic 
insight,  and  a  better  historical  literature  than  in  the 
rest  of  Europe,  the  contemporary  judgment  is  per- 
tinent and  pragmatic :  "  The  Roman  Curia,  that  it 
may  rule  alone,  has  effected  the  hopeless  destruction 
of  the  Roman  Empire."  ^  In  Italy  the  Sibyl  was  in 
favor  of  the  Guelph  and  the  French  papal  party,  and 
it  accordingly  announced,  that  on  the  death  of  Frede- 
rick II.,  the  Germanic  Roman  Empire  itself  would  go 
to  its  grave.  The  Florentine  Guelph,  Brunetto  Latin i, 
in  his  work  written  in  French  about  1266,  gives  it  as 
his  opinion,  that  "  if  Merlin  and  the  Sibyl  tell  the 
truth,  Frederick  and  the  Imperial  dignity  will  end 
together ;  yet  I  do  not  know  whether  this  is  to  be 

1  Imperium  Romannm.  procurante Cuiiu  Romana,  lit  sola  domina- 
rctur,  suspcnditur  dcsperatum.  CArow.  Job.  de  Oxenedes  ad  a.  1251 
(London,  1860). 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES.    355 

understood  of  his  race,  or  of  the  Germans,  or  of  both 
to^jether."  ^  We  learn  however  from  his  contemporary 
and  countryman,  SaHmbene,  that  the  Sibyl  expressed 
herself  very  distinctly.  "  In  him,"  she  said,  "  the 
kingdom  shall  come  to  an  end,  for  although  he  shall 
have  successors,  they  shall  nevertheless  be  deprived 
of  the  title  of  Emperor,  and  of  the  Roman  dignity 
(fastigiiun).  2  Salimbene  himself  did  not  doubt  that, 
for  the  future,  it  was  the  divine  purpose  that  there 
should  be  no  longer  an  emperor. 

Two  contemporaries  exhibit  to  us  the  position  of  the 
Germans  ;  the  one,  the  experienced  and  observing  au- 
thor of  a  brief  anonymous  writing'  of  the  year  1288, 
the  other,  Jordanus  of  Osnabriick,  in  his  book  on  the 
Roman  Empire.  *  "  Within  fifty  years,"  said  the  first, 
*'  the  Roman  kingdom,  which  in  the  year  1 220  was  still 
so  powerful,  has  sunk  so  low  as  to  have  lost  all  consi- 
deration. The  Papacy,  on  the  contraiy,  has  mounted 
so  high,  that  kings  and  peoples,  and  the  whole  world 
lying  at  the  feet  of  the  Pope,  have  greeted  him  as 
monarch  of  the  world.  This  can  now  rise  no  higher, 
without  degenerating  into  a  complete  secular  domin- 

1  Lfs  Litres  du  Trfsor,  ed.  Chabaille  (Paris,  1863),  p.  93. 

2  Chro  .,  p.  167,  378. 

3  The  Noti  ia  Sfecult,  published  by  Karajan,  in  his  work,  Zur  Ge- 
echichte  det  Concils  von  Lyon  (Vienna,  1849). 

4  Jordanus,  ed.  Waitz,  Gottingen,  1868. 


356     COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

ion.  To  such  an  extent  has  the  clergy,  in  the  service 
of  the  Roman  Church,  and  with  the  co-operation  of  the 
French,  destroyed  the  Roman  Empire  (Clcrici  et  Gal- 
lici  mine  parte  inagnd  Rovianum  destrnxcriint  impe- 
rimn).  Should  they  fully  succeed  in  accomplishing 
this  work  of  destruction,  such  a  flood  of  misfortune 
and  ruin  will  break  forth,  preceding  the  Antichrist, 
as  the  world  has  not  yet  experienced.  In  recompense, 
hovvever,  for  the  shame  which  the  clergy  has  already 
brought  upon  the  empire,  a  judgment  will  soon  be  in- 
flicted upon  them,  because  they  are  so  deeply  infected 
with  the  poison  of  Simony." 

Jordanus  expressed  himself  more  cautiously :  "  Since 
the  Roman  Empire  has  shared  in  the  great  honor  of 
constituting  the  bulwark  of  the  Christian  world  against 
the  Antichrist,  who  could  not  appear  until  that  em- 
pire was  overthrown,  all  these  forerunners,  who  as- 
sist in  this  overthrow,  are  but  preparing  the  way  for 
the  Antichrist  ;  and  the  popes,  chief  enemies  of  the 
Empire,  are  doing  this  most  of  all.  The  Romans 
and  their  popes,"  then  adds  Jordanus,  "had  better 
beware,  lest  by  a  just  judgment  of  God  upon  their 
orfcnses,  their  authority  be  taken  away  from  them." 
The  same  warning  was  also  delivered  by  him  to 
the  German  princes,  so  gladly  enriching  them- 
selves at  the  expense  of  the  empire.     The  Cardinal 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES,    357 

Jacob  Colonna,  who  wrote  a  preface  to  this  work 
of  Jordanus  in  the  year  1281,  addressed  Pope 
Martin  V.,  the  tireless  opponent  of  the  German  and 
patron  of  the  French  power,  expressing  his  fear  that 
if  the  Roman  Church,  which  had  banished  its  custom- 
ary prayer  for  the  emperor  from  its  Hturgy  of  the 
mass,  has  now  gone  so  far  as  to  be  able  to  say,  We 
have  no  king  or  emperor  but  the  Pope,  there  would 
break  forth  a  great  and  bloody  persecution  of  the 
clergy.  (Waitz,  41.) 

In  still  later  times,  the  Belgian  chronicler,  Dynter, 
addressed  a  pathetic  warning  to  the  German  electors, 
that  they  should  earnestly  consider  what  dangers  and 
calamities  the  destruction  of  the  Roman  Empire 
would  bring  upon  the  world.  ^  This  was  written  in 
the  year  1445,  just  as  Germany  had  shown  to  the 
world,  in  the  Hussite  wars,  the  spectacle  of  its  pitiable 
impotence,  and  that  its  empire  was  now  become  an 
empty  shadow. 

In  the  thirteenth  century,  however,  in  the  midst  of 
all  the  ruin  of  Germany  and  Italy,  the  hope  of  an 
approaching  transformation  of  affairs  was  still  pre- 
served by  means  of  prophecies.  Roger  Bacon,  who, 
with  Dante,  was  the  most  richly  endowed,  the 
most   many-sided   and    cultivated   spirit  of  his  age, 

1  Dynieri  Chronicon,  ed.  de  Ram.  (Brussels,  1854),  i,  166. 


358     COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

wrote  I'n  the  year  1267  :  "It  has  been  prophesied 
for  forty  years,  and  confirmed  by  many  visions,  that 
a  righteous,  true  and  holy  priest  is  to  arise,  as  re- 
former and  purifier  of  the  Church,  so  deeply  involved 
in  error.  He  is  to  purify  the  laws  of  the  Church, 
and  establish  the  practice  of  christian  righteousness, 
and  by  reason  of  his  excellence,  the  union  with  the 
Greek  Church  is  to  be  restored,  and  the  Mongols  to 
be  converted,  when  the  annihilation  of  the  Saracens 
will  follow."  ^  All  this,  fancied  Bacon,  might  within 
the  space  of  a  year  be  accomplished,  yea,  even  in  a 
shorter  time,  if  it  pleased  God  and  the  pope  ;  and  he 
challenged  Pope  Clement  IV.  with  all  earnestness,  to 
lay  his  hand  to  the  work, — the  very  pope,  as  Bacon 
must  have  well  known,  who,  instead  of  being  the  leader 
in  the  building  up  of  a  genuine  christian  righteousness, 
was  rather  only  busied  with  the  development  of  papal 
absolutism  into  a  purely  arbitrary  rule,  and  the  con- 
firmation of  the  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition.  But  Bacon 
thought  that  everything  was  so  corrupt,  that  either 
Antichrist  would  come,  or  a  pope  to  purify  the  Church 
must  arise  ;  and  he  manifestly  thinks  of  the  possibility 
of  a  great  moral  and  spiritual  transformation,  to  be,  as  it 
were,  accomplished  at  one  stroke.     It  is  striking  to 

1  Rogcri  Bacon  Opera  Qusedem  HacUnui  Inedita,  cd.  Brewer  (Lon- 
don, 1859),  p.  87,  cf.  p.  418. 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES.    359 

observe,  that  the  men  of  greatest  insight  in  those  days, 
like  Roger  Bacon  and  Dante,  believed  in  a  sudden  and 
complete  change  of  disposition  in  whole  nations  and 
periods,  and  possessed  so  little  understanding  of  the 
laws  of  historic  development.  This  is  to  be  explained 
from  the  astrological  delusions  which  prevailed,  and 
which  ruled  the  minds  of  these  men  also.  The  view 
was  held  that  the  tone  and  the  ethical  tendency  of  an 
age  were  controlled  by  a  change  in  the  reciprocal  po- 
sition of  the  stars  ;  that  sudden  transitions,  accordingly, 
from  one  extreme  to  the  other,  from  virtue  and  piety 
to  corruption  and  sinfulness,  and  the  reverse,  were  pos- 
sible. Such  changes  were  to  be  completed  in  a  fatalistic 
way,  with  unavoidable  necessity,  while  yet,  to  the  indi- 
vidual was  guaranteed  his  personal  freedom  of  will,  to 
hold  fast  his  chosen  course  in  the  midst  of  the  stream 
of  ruin.  This  influence  of  the  stars  was  then  called 
into  the  service  of  prophecy.  Such  men,  it  was  said, 
as  were  receptive  of  astral  impressions  by  virtue  of 
their  natural  temperament,  were,  for  that  reason 
adapted  to  prophecy.  They  were,  so  to  speak,  pre- 
destined by  nature  to  this  calling,  and  might  all  the 
more  surely  comprehend  the  twofold  revelation  of 
God,  the  one  within  them,  the  other  mediated  by  the 
constellations.  ^ 

1  See  what  Benedict  XIV.  cites  on  this  from  the  manuscript  of  an 
Italian  tlieolopjian,  appealing  to  Albertus  Magnus  and  Aristotle  : 
ubi  supra,  p.  436. 


36o     COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

Bacon  could,  it  is  true,  appeal  to  the  fact,  that  stu- 
pendous religious  movements,  suddenly  bursting  forth, 
were  not  unheard-of  events  in  his  own  times.  Once 
certainly  had  it  happened,  that  a  gigantic  revival,  ap- 
parently without  previous  preparation  and  entirely 
spontaneous, — a  spirit  of  repentance  and  conversion  to 
a  new  life, — had  been  manifested.  In  the  midst  of  the 
partizan  discords  and  animosities  by  which  Italy 
was  rent,  there  were  times  of  weariness,  in  Avhich  they 
tried  to  shake  off  the  spirit  of  faction  and  political 
hatred  which  oppressed  them  as  with  the  weight  of 
Alps,  and  poisoned  all  other  relations  ;  then  a  spirit  of 
reconciliation  prevailed.  Thus  in  the  year  1260,  when 
under  the  influence  of  prophecy  the  first  great  pil- 
grimage of  the  Flagellants  arose,  thousands  of  peni- 
tents, men  and  women  of  every  age,  scourging  them- 
selves and  beseeching  the  mercy  of  God  and 
peace  among  men,  moved  on  from  city  to  city. 
It  was  as  if  great  towns  had  emptied  their  entire 
population,  even  twelve  or  twenty  thousand  souls,  into 
another  town.  Those  banished  were  allowed  to  return, 
Ghibellines  and  Guelphs  embraced  one  another  and 
were  reconciled  ;  many  criminals  were  pardoned.  It 
was  a  powerful  religious  impulse  of  the  nations  to  help 
themselves  ;  but  the  rulers  remained  unmoved,  the 
pope  maintained  an  attitude  of  indifference,  or  even  of 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES.     361 

hostility  towards  the  movement,  and  so  the  flame  of 
enthusiasm,  which,  well  directed  and  fostered,  might 
have  led  to  the  salvation  of  Italy,  was  allowed  to 
become  extinguished. 

In  the  statements  of  Bacon,  we  meet  for  the  first 
time  the  thought,  which  was  afterwards  adopted  in 
Italy,  of  a  "  Papa  Angclico."  It  was  the  expectation 
laid  down  by  so  many  subsequent  prophets,  of  a  pope 
who  was  to  restore  peace  and  harmony  and  bring 
back  the  Church  again  to  the  purity  and  freshness  of 
youth.  It  was  the  Italian  counterpart  to  the  much 
desired  and  hoped-for  German  Emperor  Frederick. 
After  the  great  intermediate  empire,  the  hopes,  desires 
and  needs  of  the  German  race  were  concentrated  upon 
the  thought  of  a  strong  and  all-powerful  emperor,  who 
was  to  re-establish  the  fallen  kingdom,  humble  the 
grand  and  despotic  papacy,  and  strip  from  the 
clergy  its  boundless  and  misappropriated  riches. 
How  long  was  it  believed  in  Germany  that  Frederick 
II.  was  still  alive!  How  many  false  Fredericks,  pre- 
tenders trusting  to  popular  fav^or,  deceived  the  people  ! 
When  one  of  these  false  Fredericks  was  burned  at 
Wetzlar  in  the  year  12S9,  the  story  among  the  people 
was  :  "  His  bones  were  not  found  in  the  fire  ;  I-jnperor 
Frederick  was  still  alive,  by  the  power  of  God,  and  is 


362     COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

to  banish  the  priests  "  ^  As  these  hopes  were  all  at 
length  extinguished,  a  new  prophecy  took  their  place, 
which  promised  the  appearance  of  a  new  Emperor 
Frederick.  It  travelled  for  more  than  a  century  in 
the  greatest  variety  of  shapes,  and  ran  like  a 
thread  through  many  other  prophecies.  In  the  collec- 
tions of  such  predictions,  it  was  usually  found  in  the 
first  rank.  It  was  said  to  have  originated  from  the 
most  illustrious  of  the  prophets,  from  Joachim  him- 
self. Certain  it  is,  that  its  influence  was  deep  and 
abiding.  The  very  name  of  Frederick  became  signifi- 
cant, and  whoever  among  princes  and  monarchs  bore 
it,  excited  the  expectation  that  he  was  destined  to  be- 
come the  instrument  of  a  great  and  fortunate  change. 
Earlier,  it  was  a  Frederick  from  the  Orient  who  was 
expected.  The  natural  son  of  Frederick  IL,  who  died 
in  1258,  appears  to  have  been  called  Frederick  of  An- 
tioch  for  this  reason.  Later  it  was  simply  Frederick, 
or  the  third  of  this  name,  the  Eagle,  who  was  to 
spread  his  wings  from  sea  to  sea,  even  to  the  ends 
of  the  earth.  By  him,  or  at  least  in  his  time,  pope 
and  clergy  were  to  be  imprisoned,  scattered,  stripped  of 
their  wealth  or  even  killed.  Even  in  the  confessions, 
which  the  Catharists  of  southern  France  made,  in  the 

1   Ilagcn's  Oeslerreich.   Chronik,  in  Pezii  Scriptures  Her.  AuHr.,  1., 
1105. 


COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES.    363 

year  1 32 1,  before  the  Inquisition,  *  allusion  is  made 
to  the  expectation  which  they  cherished,  that  Frede- 
rick III  would  arise,  extend  their  Catharist  communion, 
their  Gnostic  and  dualistic  church,  and  while  protect- 
ing them,  violently  oppress  the  clergy  and  the  Church. 
In  upper  Italy,  a  prophet  of  the  third  Frederick 
excited  a  bloody  religious  war.  Dolcino,  who  had 
attained  the  headship  of  an  order  of  mendicants  mo- 
delled after  the  Minorites,  sent  forth  from  the  corner 
in  which  he  had  concealed  himself,  his  prophetic  let- 
ters, one  after  the  other,  in  the  first  years  of  the  four- 
teenth century.  Stirred  up  by  the  writings  of  Joa- 
chim, and  by  kindred  ideas  relative  to  the  age  in 
which  he  lived,  and  its  connection  with  the  world's  his- 
tory, he  announced  that  it  was  revealed  to  him,  that 
Frederick  of  Aragon  would  be  called  to  the  dignity  of 
emperor,  and  that  there  would  immediately  ensue  a 
general  slaughter  of  the  entire  clergy,  and  the  destruc- 
tion of  all  religious  bodies.  Then  a  holy  pope  was  to  be 
raised  up,  in  whose  days  the  apostolic  brethren  would 
enjoy  full  freedom,  and  the  whole  earth  be  converted 
to  the  new  and  everlasting  gospel  of  the  most  perfect 
poverty.  Dolcino  fixed  the  occurrence  of  this  event  so 
near  that  he  very  speedily  outlived  the  practical  refu- 
tation of  his  prophecy.     He  was  so  slightly  perplexed, 

1  In  the  Codex  Vaticanus,  97. 


364     COSMOPOLITICAL  PROPHECIES. 

however,  that  in  his  next  prophetic  manifesto,  he  sim- 
ply removed  for  one  year  the  date  of  its  fulfihnent. 
Persecuted,  Dolcino  with  his  1400  followers  took  the 
sword,  seized  and  fortified  a  mountain  in  the  territory 
of  Vercelli,  and  a  war  sprang  up,  marked  by  all  the  atro- 
cities of  the  times,  in  which  he  at  last  was  conquered  and 
with  his  deluded  followers  came  to  a  horrible  end.  His 
adherents,  widely  scattered,  still  believing  firmly  in  the 
judgment  to  be  visited  upon  the  clergy  and  his  holiness 
the  pope  by  the  predestined  emperor,  fell  into  the 
power  of  the  Inquisition-;  and,  fifteen  years  after  the 
death  of  the  prophet,  several  scores  of  the  followers  of 
Dolcino  were  burned  upon  the  market  place  at 
Padua.  1 

1   Ilidoria   Dulcini,   cum  Additamento,   iu   Muratori  Script.  Rer. 
Jial.,  ix,  425. 


VII.   The  yoachimites. 

We  have,  in  the  teachings  of  Dolcino,  the  germs  and 
fruits  of  a  prophetic  system,  which,  hke  nothing  be- 
fore or  after  it,  was  developed  into  a  spiritual  power, 
deeply  penetrating  the  literature  of  the  Church,  and 
for  centuries  filling  the  souls  of  men  with  hope  and 
fear,  controlling  their  representations  of  the  purposes 
of  God,  and  of  the  things  to  be  expected  and  accom- 
plished. Joachim,  the  author  of  this  system,  and 
founder  of  the  congregation  of  monks  at  Fiore  in 
Calabria,  was  a  profound  theologian,  cultivated  by  the 
most  careful  biblical  studies,  although  afterwards  (that 
his  writings  might  appear  to  be  the  results  of  a  mira- 
culous enlightenment),  it  was  affirmed  that  he  was  en- 
tirely destitute  of  education.  ^  Joachim  himself 
affirmed,  that  he  was  not  a  prophet,  in  the  strict 
sense  ;  but  that  the  spirit  of  understanding  had  been 
given  to  him,  or,  in  other  words,  the  gift  rightly  to 
interpret  the  prophetic  contents  of  the  Old  and  New 
Testaments,  and  to  construct  the  course  of  history, 
the  changeful  fate  of  the  Church,  from  the  prophecies, 

1  Aocojifa,  Tit  aiunt,  divinitns  sapiontia,  cum  fi-re  cssct  priiis  illitcr- 

atns  :  Eadulplii  Coggosluili  Chron.  Anrjl.^  in  ilartcne,   Coll.  xVuipL, 

V.  838. 

3G5 


366  THE  yOACHIMITES. 

analogies  and  types  of  tlie  Bible.  He  liimself  de- 
scribes {Com.  in  Apocal.  p.  39)  how,  meditating  one 
Easter-night,  suddenly.by  a  divine  revelation,  the  entire 
fulness  of  the  contents  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  the 
harmony  of  the  Old  Testament  with  the  New,  were 
made  perfectly  clear  to  him.  It  appeared  to  him,  as 
if  a  stream  of  bright  light  was  poured  all  at  once  into 
his  soul.  He  could  say,  accordingly,  to  the  Abbot 
Adam  of  Pcrsigny,  at  Rome,  that  all  the  mysteries  of 
the  sacred  Scriptures  were  as  clear  to  him  as  they  had 
formerly  been  to  the  biblical  prophets  themselves. 

Three  popes,  Lucius  III.,  Urban  III.  (i  185),  and 
Clement  III.  (1188),  advised  Joachim  not  to  hide  the 
revelations  which  God  had  imparted  to  him,  and  to 
publish  the  writings  which  he  had  subjected  to  the 
judgment  of  the  papal  chair  (the  Concordia,  the  Psal- 
tcrinin,  and  the  Couinioitary  on  the  Apocalypse).  ^ 
King  Richard  of  England,  and  English  and  French 
bishops  of  high  standing,  asked  counsel  of  him.  ^  The 
report  of  the  appearance  of  so  great  a  prophet  as  Joa- 
chim produced  during  his  life  (he  died  in  the  year 
1202)  great  excitement  even  in  the  remote  North, 

1  JafTe  Regesta,  1085.  Vita  TJrbani  III.,  in  Miiratori  Scr.  iv,  4T(J. 
Joathim  also  names  tlicso  three  writiiiLi;.s  in  liis  Cimfessiuns.  Sco 
Giegoi'ii  Lauri,  .Joachiia  Mat/nus  I'ro/ihela  ("Siiplcs)  p.  IGG. 

2  Beneilicti  Alibatiri  i'ctrobuigcns.,  Gesta  Regis  Ueiirici  ^^London* 
1867;,  ii,  151-155. 


THE  yOACHTMITES.  367 

and  even  where  his  writings  were  not  yet  known.  His 
contemporaries  frequently  inscribed  his  name  in  their 
chronicles,  with  the  addition:  "  We  must  wait  to  see 
wliether  his  prophecies  are  confirmed  by  the  result 
Every  thing  is  still  uncertain."  And  yet  very  little 
was  really  known  before  the  year  1220  of  the  contents 
of  his  prophetic  writings.  It  had  only  been  noticed 
with  astonishment  that  he  had  said  to  the  English 
king  and  his  bishops,  that  the  Antichrist  whom  the 
apostle  Paul  had  described  as  the  man  of  sin  and 
son  of  perdition,  would  soon  appear  upon  the  papal 
chair; — that  he  was  already  born.^  Since  the  opinions 
of  Joachim  were  not  yet  known  in  their  full  extent, 
this  attracted  universal  attention.  It  was  not  known 
that  Joachim  had  discovered  more  than  one  Antichrist 
in  the  history  of  the  Church  and  in  the  prophetic 
intimations  of  the  Bible.  It  was  not  known  that,  in 
consequence  of  the  deep  corruption  of  the  Church  and 
the  poisonous  influence  of  the  Roman  Curia,  he  natu- 
rally came  to  the  idea  that  all  these  evils  met  at 
Rome,  concentrated  in  a  single  person  and  a  single 
pope. 

Honorius  III.  likewise  declared  afterthe  death  of  the 
abbot,  that  since  Joachim  had  submitted  in  writing 

1  Benedict,  Petroburg.  p.  153.     Eoger  de  Hoveden,  ap.     Savilc, 
Eer.  Angl.  ScrijJt.,  p.  388. 


368  THE  yOACHIMITES. 

all  his  writings  to  the  judgment  of  the  Apostolic 
chair,  and  had  confessed  the  faith  of  the  Roman 
Church,  it  should  be  announced  throughout  all  Cala- 
bria that  the  pope  regai'ded  him  as  a  good  catholic.  ^ 
This  decree  of  the  pope  was  especially  directed  against 
the  Cistercians,  who  had  taken  much  pains  to  secure 
the  condemnation  of  the  man  who  had  separated  him- 
self from  their  order  with  his  congregation,  or  at  least 
to  effect  the  rejection  of  his  writings  ;  as  they  had  also 
labored  to  bring  about  the  condemnation  made  by 
Innocent  III.  of  a  statement  respecting  the  Trinity, 
in  which  Joachim  had  censured  Peter  of  Lombard.  ^ 
Joachim  left  behind  the  reputation  of  being  no  less  a 
holy  man  than  one  prophetically  illuminated.  Nu- 
merous miracles  were  related  of  him  ;  in  tlie  churches 
of  Calabria  a  religious  ceremony  was  dedicated  to  him 
as  to  other  saints ;  and  the  Bollandists  introduced 
him  into  their  great  w^ork  upon  the  saints.  Many 
really  cherished  the  view,  that  in  him,  for  the  first 
time  since  the  days  of  the  Apostles,  the  cliristian  world 
had  received  a  genuine  prophet,  and  that  in  his  writ- 
ings was  first  presented  the  true  key  to  the  com- 
prehension of  the  history  of  the  world  and  of  the 
church. 

1  Lambertini  (Benedict  XIX.),  De  Servorum  Dei  Beaiificalione,  ii., 
248. 

2  Gcrvaise,  Ilisloire  du  VAbU  Joachim  (Paris,  1745),  ii.,  465. 


THE  yOACHIMITES.  369 

After  the  nlidclle  of  the  thirteenth  century,  other 
writings  appeared,  hitherto  unknown,  under  the 
name  of  Joachim, — his  commentaries  on  Isaiah  and 
Jeremiah.  Had  these  been  genuine,  the  exact  fuHihnent 
of  so  many  historic  prophecies,  falling  into  the  period 
from  1202  to  1240,  would  have  presented  the  most 
wonderful  phenomenon  in  the  history  of  prophcc}'. 
They  were  composed,  however,  by  Italian  Minorites, 
a'fthough  entirely  in  the  spirit  and  method  of 
Joachim,  By  means  of  these  new  writings,  especially 
the  commentary  of  Jeremiah,  which  was  generally 
accepted  with  entire  confidence  as  a  genuine  pro- 
duction of  the  Calabrian  abbot,  the  doctrines  of 
Joachim  were  first  spread  abroad  through  a  wider 
circle,  and  formed  a  school.  It  was  said  that  an  aged 
abbot  of  the  order  of  Fiore  had  entrusted  the 
writings  of  Joachim  to  the  convent  of  Minorites  in 
Pisa,  for  fear  that  his  own  convent  would  be  destroyed 
by  the  Emperor  Frederick.  (Salimbene,  p.  loi.) 
Ilence  it  was  that  the  Minorites  became  the  most 
diligent  disseminators  of  his  writings.  A  contem- 
porary affirms  that  the  prophecies  of  Joachim  came 
to  light  about  the  year  1250,  when  the  Cardinal  do 
Porto  sent  them  to  Germany.  ^    The  Minorite,  Adam 

1  Cdiirfid  of  ITalbi^rstadt  in  liis  (niiiuinti'il)  Latin  rcrasting  of  tlio 
WDik  of  Eicko  vou  licpgow.  iScu  ilurutori  Anlii^uilaics  IlaL,  iii.,  p. 
948. 


370  THE  yOACHIMITES. 

Marsh,  at  the  same  time  sent  to  the  Bishop  Grossetcste 
of  Lincoln  fragments  from  Joachim,  which  had  just 
been  brought  to  England  from  the  continent  by  a 
Minorite,  "  in  order  that  he  might  know  whether 
or  not  the  judgment  of  God  was  soon  to  break  over 
prelates  and  clergy,  princes  and  people."  ^  In  Italy 
Joachimites  were  found  as  well  among  Guelphs 
as  Ghibellines.  Salimbene  mentions  many  of  them. 
Notaries,  physicians,  judges  and  literary  persons 
regularly  assembled  at  the  residence  of  Hugo  de 
Barcola,  one  of  the  most  honored  of  the  Minorites, 
to  listen  to  his  lectures  on  Joachim.  A  professor 
of  theology,  Rudolph  of  Saxony,  abandoned 
scholasticism  in  order  to  devote  himself  entirely  to 
this  theology  of  prophecy.  Now,  however,  the  entire 
structure  of  Joachimism  was  powerfully  shaken  by 
events  which  did  not  at  all  correspond  with  the 
prophetical  reckoning.  On  the  one  hand,  the  death 
of  the  Emperor  Frederick  II.,  to  whose  government 
so  significant  a  position  had  been  assigned  in  this 
system,  occurred  in  the  year  1250,  and  brought  about 
the  entire  triumph  of  the  Papacy  over  the  empire  — 
in  total  opposition  to  the  prophecy  of  Joachim,  who 
had  assigned  a  much  longer  life  to  the  Emperor — 

1  Ad.-c  (le  Marisco  Epistolx,  p.  147,  in  the  Monumenta  Franciscana^ 
cd.  Bicwcr. 


THE  70ACHIMITES.  371 

seventy  or  seventy-two  years,  and  at  the  same  time 
had  announced  to  the  Church,  i.e.^  according  to  the 
Italian  and  Guelph  usage,  to  the  Papacy,  a 
Babylonian  captivity  of-  seventy  years  ;  in  other 
words,  an  oppression  by  the  imperial  authority  for  a 
corresponding  number  of  years.  Ten  years  later  oc- 
curred another  great  disappointment.  According  to 
the  system  of  Joachim,  the  second  period  of  the  world's 
history,  that  of  the  Son,  was  to  endure  twelve  hundred 
and  sixty  years.  The  second  epoch,  accordingly, 
that  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  would  begin  in  the  year 
1260,  and  in  conjunction  therewith  a  great  transforma- 
tion and  purification  of  the  Church.  By  means  of 
their  preaching,  the  Joachimites,  belonging  to  the 
popular  and  influential  order  of  the  Minorites,  had 
excited  in  Italy  great  expectations  among  the  people, 
and  a  religious  awakening,  which  manifested  itself 
in  the  flagellant  pilgrimages  of  that  year.  It  went, 
however,  no  farther.  The  world  in  general  followed 
its  ordinary  course.  The  Curia  and  the  hierarchy 
maintained  an  attitude  of  indifference  or  hostility 
towards  the  movement  which  had  seized  upon  the 
people.  The  Minorites  could  not  long  remain  blind 
to  the  conviction  that  not  the  slightest  inclination  to 
reform  had  been  aroused  in  the  leading  circles  of  the 
Church.  On  the  contrary,  that  evil  condition  of  things, 


372  THE  yOACHIMITES. 

which  appeared  to  them  so  intolerable,  and  to  be  the 
impelling  cause  of  severe  and  impending  judgments, 
Avas  evidently  ever  on  the  increase.  "  At  this  time," 
said  Salimbene,  "after  the  experience  of  the  period 
between  1250  and  1260,  I  have  entirely  abandoned 
the  teachings  of  Joachim,  and  I  will  henceforth  believe 
only  what  I  see."  ^  He  did  not,  however,  remain 
steadfast  in  his  determination  ;  for  when  in  his  later 
years  (about  1284)  he  wrote  his  chronicles,  he  had 
again  become  a  believing  follower  of  Joachim.  Hugo 
had  said  to  him  that  only  the  carnally-mindod 
rejected  the  prophecies  of  Joachim,  because  he 
announced  disagreeable  things,  many  and  severe 
sufferings  and  trials.  Joachim  himself  had  in  fact 
declared  his  computations  to  be  uncertain,  and 
declined  to  fix  a  definite  period  for  the  fulfilment  of 
his  prophecies.  I  lis  followers,  however,  were  ready 
with  expedients.  Some  said  the  third  epoch,  that 
of  the  Holy  Ghost,  had  certainly  begun  with  the 
year  1260,  that  the  Flagellant  pilgrimages  were  the 
token  of  its  beginning,  and  that  the  characteristic  of 
this  period,  the  power  and  activity  of  monastic 
orders,  was  actually  present.  Others,  like  Ubertino  of 
Casale,  said  that  Joachim  had  rightly  announced  the 

1  Diinisi    totaliter  istam  doctriuain,  ct  dispono  non  cruilciv,  nisi 
qvuc  vidcio.     Salimbcuf,  p.  131. 


THE  yOACHIMITES.  373 

3'car  of  the  second  epoch  (1260),  but  it  must,  howcv-cr, 
be  reckoned  from  the  resurrection,  not  from  the  birtli 
of  Christ :  so  that  the  period  of  the  Holy  Spirit  ^ 
would  begin  in  the  year  1293.  In  fact,  the  honor 
and  the  prophetic  authority  of  Joachim  were 
cultivated  in  the  heart  of  every  genuine  Minorite  ; 
for  the  prophet  had  not  only  declared  the  high 
ecclesiastical  importance  and  dignity  of  the  order, 
but  had  also  announced  that  the  Dominicans  would 
be  visited  with  the  judgments  threatening  the  rest  of 
the  clergy,  while  the  INIinorites  were  to  hapjily 
continue  until  the  end  of  the  world.  (S<dimbene,  p. 
338.)  Even  John  of  Parma,  the  universally  respected 
General  of  the  Order,  was  obliged,  after  his  retirement 
from  the  Joachimites,  to  submit  himself  to  a  severe 
examination ;  and  his  successor  and  judge,  vSaint 
Bonaventura,  threatened  to  damn  him  as  heretic,  so 
offensive  were  his  opinions  about  the  estate  and 
future  prospects  of  the  Church.  lie  was  only  saved 
by  the  interposition  of  the  pope.-   This  was  all  the 

1  Tlie  formula  repeatedly  used  l»y  Salinilieno  :  in  lerlio  statu 
Operabilur  Sjiiritus  Sancttts  in  Teligiosis.     Saliiiilienc,  p.  123,  240. 

2  AfTo,  Vita  del  h.  Giovanni  di  Parma  (I'anna,  177i),  p.  125.  AtVo 
■will  not  allow  without  proof  that  Boiiaviiitura  was  jircsent  at  this 
trial  ;  because  at  that  time  he  may  have  been  away  fiom  K.ily. 
Bt sides,  Juliu  of  Parma  was  cani>niz'd  by  Pius  VI.,  and  a  festival 
deilicated  to  him  was  introduecd  into  the  Order. 


374  I'HE  yOACHIMITES. 

more  strange,  since  Bonaventura,  as  is  evident  from 
his  commentary  on  the  Apocalypse,  held  the  same 
views  with  his  predecessors  concerning  the  corruption 
of  the  Church,  and  the  chief  cause  of  it,  that  is,  the 
Roman  Curia  polluted  by  simony. 

A  general  survey  of  the  system  of  Joachim  shows 
us,  certainly,  the  significant  germs' which  it  contains,  if 
we  take  into  view  the  prevailing  form  of  doctrine,  and 
the  hierarchical  system  of  the  times.  The  history 
of  the  human  race,  according  to  Joachim  and  his 
school,  runs  in  three  great  epochs :  I.  That  of  the 
Father  (the  Ante-Christian  period,  or,  after  the  type 
of  the  three  chief  apostles,  the  Petrine  period).  II. 
That  of  the  Son,  or  the  Pauline  period  (from  Christ  to 
the  year  1260).  III.  That  of  the  Holy  Ghost,  or  the 
Johannean  period.  The  two  latter  periods,  however, 
should  not  be  so  sharply  separated  from  one  another ; 
for  the  one  passes  over  into  the  other  by  a  silent, 
gradual  and  imperceptible  transition ;  so  that  the 
period  from  1200  to  1260  is  as  much  the  end  of  the 
second,  as  the  beginning  of  the  third  period. 

The  Church  has  become,  chiefly  through  the  ruinous 
influence  of  the  popes,  altogether  sensual,  a  house  of 
prostitution,  a  den  of  robbers.  Nevertheless,  God  has 
left  in  her  a  seed  of  blessing  and  of  grace.  The 
clergy  has  become  despised  for  its   vices  ;  the  pre- 


THE  JOACHIMITES.  375 

lates  are  adulterers  and  hirelings;  the  cardinals  and 
papal  legates,  the  avaricious  plunderers  of  the  church, 
are  sucking  away  its  life.  Thus  is  the  christian 
people  misled  and  spoiled  by  its  shepherds.  Whoever 
goes  to  Rome  on  any  mission  falls  at  once  among 
thieves — the  cardinals,  notaries,  &c.  Rome,  the  city 
destitute  of  all  christian  discipline,  is  the  fountain  of 
all  the  abominations  of  Christendom,  and  upon  her 
must  first  fall  the  judgment  of  God.  The  chief 
instruments  of  the  divine  retribution  were,  besides 
unbelievers,  the  Saracens,  the  Germans,  the  new 
Chaldeans,  and  the  Roman  Empire,  with  the  emperor. 
France,  the  new  Egypt,  the  broken  reed  upon  which 
the  papacy  leaned,  and  which  pierced  its  hand 
through,  must  be  conquered,  and  its  power  broken  by 
the  Germans,  although  it  is  to  subjugate  the  neighbor- 
ing countries  around.  For  the  Italians,  who  have  so 
deeply  sinned,  the  German  power  is  to  be  a  scourge. 
In  the  bitter  conflict  between  the  Empire  and  the 
Papacy,  both  these  mighty  powers  will  fall  in  ruin. 
The  pope  will  seek  to  destroy  the  bounds  of  the 
empire,  by  arousing  the  barbarian  nations  against  it, 
and  by  arbitrary  interference  in  the  distribution  of 
the  highest  dignities. 

The  emperor,  however,  is  to  strip  the  pope  of  all 
temporal  dominion,  and  of  all  his  possessions.     Then 


376  THE  yOACHIMITES. 

is  to  be  the  time  of  the  conversion  of  the  nations 
and  of  the  glorification  of  the  true  Church.  Now 
it  will  come  to  be  understood,  that  the  perverse 
striving  of  the  Church  after  an  unbecoming  authority, 
can  only  lead  to  a  continually  increasing  servitude. 
After  the  empire  has  done  its  work  as  an  instrument 
of  punishment,  the  avenging  judgments  will  be  com- 
pleted by  the  Saracens  (the  beast  out  of  the  sea),  and 
by  ten  kings  from  the  East.  The  Saracens  are  then 
to  be  annihilated  by  the  Tartars,  coming  from  the 
North.  The  instrument  which  God  is  to  employ  for 
purifying  the  corrupted  Church,  and  for  the  bringing 
in  of  the  great  Sabbath,  or  the  epoch  of  the  Holy 
Ghost,  will  be  an  Order  ^  of  contemplative  Eremites, 
who,  by  many  years  of  study  completed  in  silent 
retirement,  ripened  and  illuminated  by  prajxrlul 
reflection,  are  to  be  prepared  to  announce  the  true 
gospel  of  humanity.  To  this  order  also  will  that 
preacher  belong,  who,  according  to  the  statement  of 
Joachim,  either  alone  or  with  associates,  is  to  be  sent 
from  God  as  a  teacher  of  love  for  heavenly  things,  and 

1  In  most  passages  of  the  gciniinc  %vritings  of  Joachim,  only  oue 
Order  is  gpoken  of,  a  black-robed  society  of  Ereiiiites.  In  a  few 
jiassages,  however,  he  speaks  also  of  two  Oniers,  of  whicli  llio  ono 
was  to  furnish  martyrs  for  the  truth,  and  tlie  other  to  devoto  ilself 
to  the  contest  with  licretics.  In  the  commentaries  on  Ji  iciniiih 
and  Isaiah,  two  mw  orderH  of  ni<ndieants,  tlie  ]\Iinorites  and  tho 
Uoniiuicans,  arc  di.stmciiy  predicted.   (Conmi.  in  Apocal.  p.  142.) 


THE  70ACHIMITES.  ^77 

of  contempt  for  earthly  things.  (Comm.  in  Apocal., 
p.  137)  These  men,  now,  will  also  overthrow  the 
chairs  of  the  carnal  teachers,  of  the  Italian  "legists," 
and  "  dccrctists,"  of  those  flatterers  (especially  from 
Bologna,  the  valley  of  Tophet)  who  stimulate  the 
avarice  and  ambition  of  ecclesiastical  princes  by  their 
nefarious  doctrines.  At  last,  when  the  great  Sabbath  of 
rest  for  the  christian  nations  begins,  under  the 
guidance  of  true  shepherds,  and  the  contemplative 
Church  celebrates  its  triumph,  then  will  also  come  the 
conversion  of  the  Jews  and  unbelievers,  and  even  of  the 
Tartars  themselves.  With  reference  to  the  Antichrist, 
who  is  meantime  to  appear,  there  arc  contradictory 
statements  in  the  writings  of  Joachim,  which  are 
however  capable  of  reconciliation  since  he  adopted 
the  opinion  that  there  are  to  be  many  Antichrists, 
partly  in  succession,  partly  contemporaneously,  and 
that  the  nearer  the  end  of  the  world's  history  so  much 
the  more  would  they  be  multiplied. 

Such  then  are  the  leading  features  of  the  prophetic 
picture  of  the  history  of  the  world,  which,  sketched 
by  Joachim  and  completed  in  sympathy  with  him 
(the  commentary  on  Isaiah  was  not  composed  until 
about  the  year  1266),  controlled  directly  or  indi- 
rectly, for  centuries,  the  presentiments  and  thoughts 
of  mankind  respecting  the  future,  especially  in  Italy. 


378  THE  yOACHIMITES. 

The  views  respecting  the  German  people  and 
empire,  which  are  here  brought  to  Hght,  are  entirely 
those  of  the  party  of  the  Guelphs,  who  saw  in  the 
Germans  only  the  warlike  and  plundering  oppressors 
of  conquered  nations.  They  refused  to  recognize  the 
higher  calling  of  the  Empire  as  it  was  even  then 
perceived  by  Dante,  "The  kingdom  of  the  Germans," 
it  is  said  in  the  commentary  on  Jeremiah,  "has  been 
for  us  hard  and  oppressive  ;  the  Lord  must  needs 
annihilate  it  w-ith  the  sword  of  his  wrath,  that  all  kings 
may  tremble  before  the  uproar  of  its  overthrow."  \Vc 
recognize  in  such  and  similar  expressions  the  language 
of  the  Neapolitan  Minorites.  Of  the  leading  thoughts 
and  events,  which  the  authors  of  these  writings 
imagined  that  they  beheld  in  their  prophetic  mirrors, 
but  very  little  was  ever  realized. 

Of  the  two  powers  which  were  to  destroy  each 
other — the  Papacy  and  the  Empire, — the  first,  the 
Roman  Curia,  had  just  then  obtained  the  most 
complete  victory  over  the  German  Empire,  which 
lay  at  last  helpless  at  its  feet.  The  Papal  Sec, 
however,  sustained  no  loss  either  of  possessions  or  of 
authority  from  the  Germans  and  their  emperors,  at 
least  not  in  the  succeeding  centuries,  and  never 
through  an  emperor.  When,  however,  in  the  year 
1 303,  the  day  of  Anagni  came,  and  shortly  afterwards 


THE  yOACHIMITES.  379 

the  pontificate  of  Clement  V.,  the  Joachnnites  might 
well  claim  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecy  of  their 
master,  that  France  was  the  reed  which  should  pierce 
right  through  the  hand  of  the  pope  who  leaned  upon  it. 
There  exists,  however,  a  noticeable  difference  of  tone 
and  of  judgment,  which  was  not  observed  by  con- 
temporaries, between  the  genuine  writings  of  Joachim 
and  the  commentary  on  Jeremiah  and  Isaiah 
attributed  to  him,  especially  with  reference  to  the 
Papacy.  Between  the  former  and  the  latter  writings 
a  half  century  had  intervened,  during  which  the 
Papacy  advanced  with  gigantic  strides  toward  its 
goal,  the  dominion  of  the  world.  The  corruption 
proceeding  from  the  Curia  and  pervading  all  orders 
and  institutions  of  the  Church,  had  increased  in  a 
corresponding  degree.  Joachim  had,  so  to  say, 
written  in  the  interest,  and  under  the  very  eyes 
of  the  popes.  The  Minorites,  however,  who  com- 
posed the  commentaries  on  Jeremiah  and  Isaiah,  and 
who  used  the  name  of  Joachim  to  conceal  their  own, 
and  were  moreover  '*  Spirituals,"  and  professors  of  the 
new  doctrine  of  poverty,  inclined  rather  to  unsparing 
and  severe  condemnation  of  the  popes  and  their 
avaricious  and  luxurious  courts.  Joachim,  on  the 
contrary,  although  recognizing  in  many  passages  the 
Roman  Curia  as  the  source  of  corruption,  yet  always 


38o  THE  JOACHIMITES. 

spoke  of  the  Papal   Chair    in   terms   of  the  highest 
reverence. 

It  was  not  in  Italy,  not  by  the  popes,  as  might 
have  been  expected,  but  in  France,  and  by  French 
theologians  and  bishops,  that  the  prophecies  of 
Joachim  were  first  attacked,  and  characterized  as 
dangerous  errors,  not  to  be  tolerated  in  the  Church. 
In  Provence  the  doctrine  of  Joachim  had  already 
produced  a  literature  of  its  own,  when,  in  the  year 
1260,  a  synod  at  Aries  imagined  itself  called  upon 
solemnly  to  condemn  the  doctrine  of  the  three 
epochs  of  the  Church,  and  the  new  outpouring  of  tlie 
Holy  Spirit.  (Ilarduin,  Coll.  Coiicil.,  vii.,  512.)  This, 
said  the  bishops,  would  have  been  done  earlier,  had 
not  until  very  recently  the  works  of  Joachim, 
especially  the  Concordia,  lain  hidden  and  unobserved 
in  several  cloisters.  Certainly,  in  any  other  case,  they 
said,  the  Papal  Chair  would  have  condemned  ar.d 
branded,  not  only  the  writings  of  Ghefardino,  but 
Joachim  himself,  the  real  source. 

Somewhat  earlier,  the  Parisian  theologian,  William 
Saint-Amour,  wrote  in  opposition  to  the  writings  of 
Joachim,  without,  however,  knowing  the  later  works, 
the  commentaries  on  Jcrcnihih  and  Isaiah.  William 
discovered  that  all  the  signs  of  the  coming  Anticln-ist 
were   already    present ;    the    Roman    kingdom    with 


THE  JOACHIMITES.  381 

Frederick  II.  had  come  to  an  end,  and  the  gift  of 
miracles  had  been  taken  away  from  the  Church. 
Consequently,  not  at  all  Joachim's  period  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  but  the  very  opposite,  was  to  be 
expected.  ^  He  refused  to  know  anything  about  a 
comforting  future  for  humanity  and  the  Church,  and 
it  is  very  characteristic  of  the  times,  that  the  Rector 
of  the  first  university  of  the  world  rejected  the  pro- 
phecies of  Joachim,  for  the  very  reason  that  they 
promised  the  Church  and  the  Christian  world  a  long 
season  of  peace  and  prosperity,  and  a  prosperous  old 
age,  continuing  through  many  centuries.  That  dark 
sketch  which  he  drew,  of  the  sad  condition  of  the 
Church  in  its  deep  degradation,  was  not  so  different 
from  the  pictures  of  Joachim,  apart  from  the  mission 
of  the  new  mendicant  orders,  which  he  regarded 
as  injurious  in  their  influence;  but  both  drew  from 
the  same  facts  opposite  conclusions.  The  followers 
of  Joachim,  said  :  Unless  we  magnify  the  brilliant 
future  of  a  purified  and  well  ordered  Church,  we  must 
be  wrong  concerning  the  Church  itself,  and  despair 
of  its  divine  foundation  and  mission.  William 
assumed,  on  the  contrary,  that  the  days  of  a  Church, 

1  Tliis  work  is  not  by  the  Bishop  Orcsme  do  Li^iviix,  nndiT 
whose  wwvno.  it  is  giviu  in  Maiteiio  Avplns^.  Coll.  ix.,  127.!,  sq  ; 
but  by  William  of  St.  Anionr,  as  the  author  by  the  IJisioire  LiUeranc 
de  la  France^  xxi.,  470,  has  stated. 


382  THE  yOACHIMITES. 

well  pleasing  to  God  and  still  true  to  its  original 
destiny  and  constitution,  had  long  passed  by,  and 
that  there  is  no  promise  of  a  better  future.  The 
Church  has  now  to  look  for  nothing  else  but  the 
advent  of  its  great  adversary. 

In  the  same  year  in  which  both  the  new  records  of 
the  more  fully  developed  doctrine  of  Joachim, — the 
two  commentaries  on  the  prophets — appeared,  the 
Minorite,  Gherardino  of  Borgo-San-Donnino,  united 
them  in  one  work,  with  three  genuine  writings  of  the 
Abbot  of  Fiore,  under  the  title  of  the  "  Everlasting 
Gospel,"  and  added  to  them  an  Introduction,  which 
though  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  Joachim,  sounded  to 
the  majority  of  the  party  like  a  lamentable  perversion 
of  the  genuine  doctrine.  Forbearing  as  the  Papal 
Chair  had  hitherto  showed  itself  towards  the  teach- 
ings of  Joachim,  yet  an  anathema  was  now  unavoid- 
able. It  was  accordingly  delivered  in  the  year  1255, 
by  a  commission  of  cardinals,  at  Anagni,  on  the 
complaint  of  the  Bishop  of  Akkon,  who  came  for  that 
purpose  from  France.  Gherardino  had  announced 
in  his  Iiitroditcto7'iiis,  the  advent,  six  years  later,  in 
1260,  of  the  third  epoch  of  the  world's  history,  the 
Era  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  With  this,  the  New 
Testament,  the  e[)och  and  ceconomy  of  the  Son,  was  to 
be  fully  closed,  abrogated  and  made  void,  as  that  of 


THE  yOACHIMITES.  383 

the  first  period,  or  of  the  Old  Testament,  had  been 
abrogated  by  the  New.  For,  he  added,  no  one  has 
been  brought  to  perfection  by  the  Gospel  of  Christ. 
Under  the  guidance  of  the  Order  of  Minorites,  now 
developed  in  full  proportions,  all  figures  and  riddles 
will  vanish  in  the  sunlight  of  the  new  Church  of  the 
Holy  Spirit.  As  in  the  beginning  of  the  new 
covenant  there  shone  three  persons,  Zacharias,  John 
the  Baptist,  and  the  man  Jesus ;  so  in  the  third,  the 
epoch  of  the  Spirit,  the  three  columns  of  the  structure 
were  to  be  Joachim,  Dominic,  and  Francis.^ 

The  fate  of  Gherardino  was  fearful.  lie  would  not 
recant,  and  was  condemned  to  a  life-long  imprison- 
ment, in  which,  after  eighteen  years,  he  died.  No 
one  any  longer  defended  the  Introductoriiis,  which 
after  six  years  was  refuted  by  facts. 

But  the  doctrine  and  prophecies  of  Joachim  were 
continuously  upheld  in  the  Order  of  the  Minorites, 
and  two  distinguished  men,  Peter  John  D'Olive  and 
LU^crtino  of  Casale,  gave  it  a  new  impulse.  Attached 
to  them  was  the  influential  party  of  the  Spirituals,  as 
that  class  of  men  was  named,  in  the  phrase  of 
Joachim,  who  desired  to  retain  entire  poverty,  in  the 
sense  of  the  founder  of  the  order.     The  authority  of 

1  Diiplessis  d'Argontrc,  in  liis  Colleclio  Judicior-iVi,  i.,  1G3,  gives 
the  i)assagcs  frum  the  Inlroducioriua. 


384  THE  JOACHIMITES. 

Joachim  as  a  prophet  remained  undiminished,  only  it 
was  discovered  that  his  dates  rested  upon  pure 
conjectures,  and  were  therefore  not  to  be  strictly 
taken;  although  the  number  1260,  according  to  the 
theory  of  the  apocalyptic  days  taken  as  years,  was 
always  retained  as  indicating  the  great  turning  point. 
The  entire  duration  of  the  world  and  the  Church 
was  now  divided  into  seven  periods,  In  each  of  which 
a  great  and  severe  contest  was  to  occur.  The  fifth 
period,  extending  Into  the  thirteenth  century,  was  the 
time  of  the  complete  corruption  of  the  Church,  in 
which  the  Roman  Chair,  risen  to  the  highest  degree  of 
power,  also  contributed  most  to  the  general  corruption. 
With  the  sixth  period,  the  third  great  era,  that  of  the 
Holy  Ghost,  had  begun.  In  reality  it  began  with  the 
appearance  of  Saint  Francis,  a  hundred  years  before  ; 
but  it  was  then  still  flooded  with  the  dregs  of  the  fiftli 
period.  The  carnal  Church,  however,  with  its  false 
popes,  was  ripening  for  judgment,  and  the  time  \\as 
not  far  distant  in  which  the  Spirituals  should  con- 
quer, and  the  spiritual  Church  should  manifest  itself, 
and  rule,  freed  from  the  poison  of  temporal  possessions. 
Then  tlie  Church  was  to  have  entire  leisure  and 
complete  power,  anc"  endure  long  enough  to  bring 
about  the  conver-ion   of  the  Jews  as  well  as  of  the 


THE  JOACHIMITES.  385 

whole  heathen  world.  D'Olive'si  commentary  on 
the  Apocalypse  was  the  favourite  book  of  the 
Spirituals  and  of  their  numerous  adherents,  especially 
in  Italy,  and  southern  France  ;  they  were  continual- 
ly upheld  by  these  prophecies,  expecting  from  year 
to  year  the  victory  and  the  public  manifestation  of 
the  Church  of  the  Holy  Ghost. 

As  they  had  declined  to  recognize  any  pope  since 
John  XXII.,  the  popes  visited  them  with  that  fear- 
ful persecution  in  which  a  hundred  and  fourteen 
Spirituals  were  burned  at  the  stake,  and  many 
more  died  in  severe  imprisonment.  The  bones  of 
D'Olive  were  dug  up  and  burned,  and  his  writings 
v/ere  prohibited,  until  Sextus  IV.,  himself  a  Minorite, 
ordered  a  new  investigation,  and  declared  them 
orthodox,  since,  as  was  said,  the  passages  which 
had  been  regarded  as  objectionable  could  be  inter- 
preted in  a  good  sense.  ^ 

It  cannot  be  denied  that  these  victims  of  the  papal 

1  He  was  gtyled  the  Doctor  Columbinua,  since  his  party  chose  th© 
dove  as  its  symbol.  The  coininentary  is  still  uni>riiit('(l,  hut  the 
Bititk'S  presented  to  a  pajjal  commission  under  John  XXIf.,  wero 
tiiken  from  it,  and  are  sufficient  to  mak(!  us  a;  (juainted  with  his 
views.  Vbertino's  chief  work  was  composed  in  the  year  1 305,  Arbor 
Vide  Crucijixx  (Vtnice,  1484);  here  he  declares  Boniface  Vlll.  and 
Clement  v.  to  be  false  popes. 

2  Flam.  Anuibali  de  Latera,  Supplem.  ad  Bullar.  Fruncits.  (liome, 
IIIS),  p.  52. 


SS6  THE  yOACHnriTES. 

dogmatic  tribunal  led  a  pure  and  austere  life,  corres- 
ponding with  the  rule  of  their  founder.  So  much 
the  deeper,  then,  was  the  aversion  aroused  against 
Rome  and  the  Curia,  who,  according  to  the  judg- 
ment of  the  people,  had  executed  the  men  that  were 
the  ver)-  fiower  of  the  Catholic  Church,  It  had 
a'.reaiy  been  said,  in  the  commentar\-  on  Jeremiah 
attributed  to  Joachim  :  "  As  she  (the  Curia)  had 
murdered,  so  sbou'd  she  also  be  murdered,"  and  the 
prophecies  of  the  succeeding  period  had  a  continually- 
increasing  anti-papal  coloring.  And  so  sprung  up 
the  fearful  thought,  that  the  Papal  Chair  might  have 
been  for  a  time  the  seat  of  the  .\ntichrist,  or  yet 
should  be. 

For  the  impres.:ion  v.as  \try  c.it^  v.hich  Boniface 
VIII.  by  his  entire  bearing  made  upon  his  con- 
temporaries ;  by  h's  audacious  announcement  of  the 
cc'gma  of  the  papal  supremacy'  over  the  world,  by  his 
t^.Tinny  based  on  fear  and  terror,  and  by  his  undis- 
g-uised  immorality.  The  astonishment  and  dismay  of 
religiously-disposed  persons  at  the  appearance  of  this 
"r.e-.v  Lucifer"  in  the  Papal  Chair  was  portrayed  in 
gi:  .ving  vrords  by  the  distinguished  poet  of  the  Order 
cf  M:n;ri::-?,  Jaccp^ne  of  Txli.  ^    The  \-ie-.v  of  the 

3  T'Ji'  i«  '.■-.-zzii  i-L  ri-e  cl-i-rsi  >A\n':X^  of  Li=  i^-'Tn.  but  La*  Ix-tn 
i'rfi  tui  Jii  VLt  iiJrT  <.^rS-  Yti  To^  LAS  rtinutcd  It  ifl  iiie  Su/rta  di 
J^i-,.,-:.c4'»  VilJ,  M-.-iiwi:  Castillo.  i:-4;,  L.  i5»>. 


THE  yOACHIMITES.  387 

Joachimites  that  the  chair  of  St.  Peter  should  be  for 
a  considerable  period  the  spoil  of  an  adversarj-  of 
Christ,  who  was  to  bear  all  the  marks  foretold  of  the 
Antichrist,  came  to  appear  more  probable  in  the  eyes 
of  many  persons. 

It  was  still  more  easily  imagined  that  such  "a  Man 
of  Sin,  and  Son  of  Perdition"  was  actually  sitting  in 
the  temple  of  God  and  adorned  with  the  papal  tiara, 
when,  in  the  year  13 10.  Pope  Clement  V.  instituted  a 
public  process  against  his  predecessor,  Boniface,  now 
seven  years  dead,  which  was  continued  over  a  year;  and 
when  a  v.hole  series  of  men  of  the  highest  standing, 
prelates,  abbots,  counts  and  other  noblemen,  came 
forth  as  eye-witnesses  to  convict  this  pope  of  unbelief, 
of  heresy,  of  the  utter  disregard  of  all  morality,  men 
o.*"  whom  Clement  himself  testified,  when  he  rejected 
the  suit,  that  tluy  were  in  the  highest  degree 
trustworthy,  and  hid  only  been  moved  to  their 
declarations  by  zeal  for  the  Catholic  Church. 

The   ijreatest    Italian    of   his    time,    Dante,   who 

although  in  a  way  peculiar  to  himself,  was  nevertheless 

a  Joachimite,  gave  utterance  to  the  words  (Paradise, 

27.  22-i\)  : 

"  He  who  usurps  upon  the  earth  my  pUce, 

My  place,  my  pl«pcc,  which  vacant  has  become, 
B;;forc  the  presence  of  the  Son  of  God."  i 

1  Longf-jIIows  translatioD. 


388  THE  yOACHIMITES. 

The  poet,  however,  did  not,  Hke  the  Spirituals 
or  FraticelH,  infer  from  this  withdrawal  of  God  from 
the  Papal  Chair,  that  all  done  on  earth  by  such  a 
usurper  was  void  and  invalid.  On  the  contrary, 
Boniface  VIII.  was  to  him  the  regular  representative 
of  Christ  upon  earth,  but  in  heaven  a  usurper,  as  is 
proved  by  Dante's  renowned  expression  concerning 
the  seizure  at  Anagni.^ 

The  expectations  of  the  Joachimite  Spirituals,  at 
the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century,  embraced, 
accordingly,  the  following  points:  (i)  A  general,  severe 
and  bloody  judgment  upon  the  Church,  which  had 
become  altogether  carnal,  in  which  only  {q\\  good 
persons  could  be  found,  like  a  few  grains  of  gold  in 
a  great  heap  of  sand.  (2)  A  pope  given  to  simony  (the 
so  called  mystical  Antichrist),  who,  a  living  pattern 
and  picture  of  the  abominations  of  the  Church,  claimed 
for  himself  divine  attributes,  and  received  divine 
honors.  (3)  A  pouring  forth  of  the  Holy  Ghost 
upon  the  Spirituals,  to  rally  them  for  the  conflict 
with  the  great  and  last  Antichrist.  Such  were  the 
events    which     numberless    adherents    of    the    same 

1    [TIh;  seizure  and  iinprisonin"iit  of  liouifiue  VIII.  l>y  th';  troojjS 
of  I'liilip  the  Fair  at  Aniij,'iii  (.Vlaf,Mia).  S-'c  Dante's  Pur(jatonj  xx  ,  «7, 
"  I  see  tlie  flower-de-liice  Alagna  (liter, 
And  Clinst  in  his  own  Vicar  captive  made."    H.  B.  S.] 


THE  70ACHIMITES.  389 

party  of  Minorites  looked  forward  to  at    that  time 
and  long  afterwards  in  Italy  and  Southern  France. 

Another  prophecy  circulated  contemporaneously 
with  that  of  Joachim,  and  afterwards,  gave  much  occa- 
sion for  reflection,  and  was  firmly  trusted,  in  the  pas- 
sages which  could  be  understood.  As  the  legend  says, 
it  was  received  from  the  hands  of  an  angel  in  1 192  by 
Cyril,  a  Greek  from  Constantinople  (a  Carmelite,  and 
General  of  the  Order),  and  it  was  written  upon  two  silver 
tables.  This  prophecy  of  Cyril,  in  language  designedly 
ambiguous,  and  for  the  most  part  hardly  intelligible, 
Vv'ith  many  foreign  words  and  bombastic  flourishes,  ^ 
is  one  of  the  numerous  fictions  of  the  order  of 
Carmelites  ;  for  which  reason  it  is  frequently,  though 
in  contradictory  senses,  elucidated  by  members  of 
this  Order.  2  It  starts  from  the  year  1254,  and  first 
announces  the  conflicts  between  the  houses  of  Anjou 
and  Aragon,  about  Naples  and  Sicily.  Then  the  fall 
of  the  Church  and  of  the  Roman  Chair,  the  severe 
burden  of  the  sins  of  the  degenerated  clergy  and  the 

1  Ex.  gr.  To  express  tlic  idea  that  the  Iluly  Gliost  has  departed 
from  the  chureh,  it  is  said  :  "  Evolavit  palumha  nidijicans  in  coroim." 
The  mendicant  monks  arc  called  J'ocotrophila:  (i.e.  ;  J'lochoiro- 
2>hit(r),  etc. 

2  Uivinum  Oraculum,  S.  Cyrillo  CaiiTiclit.T?  solanni  Icpationo 
Anpeli  missum,  cui  adj.  Commentariiis  I'hiiipi)!  a  Trinitati  (Ly<>n< 
1GG3).  The  other  commentaries  are  in  the  liiUioUieca  CaniulUaim 
of  Cosmasde  Villiers  (Aurelian.  1752.  i.,  358). 


390  THE  JOACHIMITES. 

clerical  orders,  together  with  the  judgments  impend- 
ing upon  them,  are  portrayed.  The  Imperial  Eagle  is 
exhorted  to  "  awake,  spread  out  thy  wings,  hew  down 
with  thy  beak."  The  stress  of  the  whole  seems  to 
lie  in  the  last  chapter,  where  an  admonitory  sermon  is 
preached  to  the  three  corrupt  orders,  the  Minorites, 
the  Dominicans,  and  Carmelites ;  and  the  impositions 
of  the  mendicant  monks,  and  their  illicit  ways  of 
acquiring  property,  are  portrayed. 

The  author  himself  has  supplied  a  key,  though  it  is 
a  very  inadequate  one,  for  the  solution  of  his  riddles  ; 
for  he  has  foisted  upon  the  Abbot  Joachim  an  interpre- 
tation of  the  prophecy,  with  the  fiction  that  C}-ril  sent 
to  him  in  Calabria  this  prophecy  from  the  East,  and 
asked  him  to  interpret  it.  The  text  is  so  obscure, 
that  with  a  little  fancy  it  can  be  made  to  apply  to 
every  conceivable  event,  and  therefore  it  long  con- 
tinued in  high  esteem.  Rienzo  believed  that  in  it 
his  mission  was  clearly  outlined  ;  and  Telcsphorus 
seized  upon  it  for  other  ends,  and  made  it  a  part  of  the 
basis  of  his  prophetic  scheme. 

The  famous  physician,  Arnold  of  Villanova,  held 
this  prophecy  of  Cyril  in  so  high  esteem,  that  he 
maintained  in  his  writings  that  it  was  more  precious 
than  all  the  books  of  the  Bible  ;  ^  he  probably  meant, 

1  Sec  the  Centura  of  his  writings  by  a  tribunal  of  the  Inquisition 


THE  JOACIinilTES.  391 

that  it  must  be  placed  higher  than  tliese,  since  it  was 
written  upon  a  tablet  by  the  hands  of  angels,  while 
the  books  of  the  Bible  came  only  from  men.  •  Arnold 
was,  besides,  a  zealous  Joachimite,  one  of  the  Spiritu- 
als, and  altogether  too  bold  a  prophet.  It  seemed 
to  him  that  the  whole  Western  Church  was  already 
completely  ruined,  beyond  redemption,  by  the  excess 
of  its  sins ;  and  so  he  thought  that  everything  must 
rush  quickly  to  perdition  ;  and  therefore  (about  1297), 
he  put  the  coming  of  the  last  great  Antichrist  in  the 
year  1316,  and  the  end  of  the  world  in  1335.  His 
positions  were  afterwards  condemned  by  a  tribunal  of 
the  Inquisition  in  Spain. 

Spiritual  corporations,  like  the  Minorites  and  the 
Dominicans,  that  attain  great  power  in  the  world, 
when  they  come  to  the  height  of  their  importance 
naturally  imagine  that  tlieir  iiistory  must  have  been 
foretold  by  divine  appointment.  The  Minorites  had 
taken  good  care  that,  in  the  Joachimite  writings, 
there  should  be  found  a  very  distinct  prediction 
declaring  that  two  Orders  were  to  spring  up,  one  out 
of  Umbria  (Assisi),  and  the  other  in  Spain,  brilliant 
stars  for  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  ^    Joachim  had 

at  'I"anac:ona.  1.T16,  in  Villanuuv.i,  Viaje  Lutrario  a  Iti  fglaiat  de 
Esp  na,  xix,  32 1. 

1  Coini>aic  Giegoiius  <lc  L«iuro,  Joachtmi  Mirabil.  Veritas  de/ema 
p.  170, 


392  THE  70ACHIMITES 

even  depicted  the  garbs  which  were  to  be  worn  by 
these  two  fraternities,  in  a  painting  of  the  cloister  of 
Fiore,  and  admonished  his  monks,  that  when  men 
came  to  them  thus  clad,'  they  were  to  be  welcomed 
with  friendliness  and  reverence.  ^  By  this  means  the 
Joachimites  received  new  support  in  spite  of  the 
unfavorable  judgment  of  the  great  Dominican  theolo- 
gian, Thomas  of  Aquinas,  about  Joachim  himself ;  for 
Thomas  would  only  let  him  pass  as  a  well-meaning 
man  who  had  foretold  some  truths  by  happy  con- 
jecture, although  in  other  things  he  was  deluded. 
(Thomas  in  lib.  iv.  Sentent.  dist.  439,  i,  art.  3.) 

1  Gerardus  de  Fracheto,  Vita  Frairum,  p.  7,  ed.  Duacen. 


l;:^^ 


VIII.    TJic  Prophetic   Spirit  front   the  Fourteenth 
Centiay  to  the  Beginning  of  the  Reformation. 

The  silver  tables  of  Cyril  exercised  no  small 
influence  upon  the  circle  of  ideas  of  the  Roman 
tribune,  Cola  di  Ricnzo,  who  had  been  educated  by 
the  Spiritualists,  and  Fraticelli,  living  as  hermits  in 
the  Apennines.  "  The  tables  of  stone  were  given  to 
Moses  on  Sinai,"  wrote  Cola  to  the  Emperor  Charles 
IV.,  "  and  so  these  silver  tables  were  delivered  to 
Cyril  on  Carmel,"  ^  and  he  must  believe  these  pro- 
phecies, since  Dominicans,  Franciscans  and  the 
present  pope  were  so  plainly  designated  therein.  So, 
too,  Merlin  and  Joachim,  as  well  as  Cyril,  had  told 
beforehand  of  the  present  persecution  of  the  poor 
Eremites  by  the  pope  and  his  inquisitors. 

In  Ricnzo  were  united,  in  fact,  the  brooding  spirit 
of  the  fanatical  Joachimites  with  political  insight  and 
a  gift  of  domination  which  bordered  on  genius.  Like 
all  the  Joachimites  he  firmly  believed  in  the  near 
approach  of  the  third  epoch,  the  Church  of  the  Holy 
Ghost.     We  find  in  him  already  the  idea  of  a  future 

1  Papencordt,  Cola  di  Rienzo  und  seine  Zeit,  (1841),  6.,  228. 

S83 


394      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

holy  pope,  accustomed  to  the  poverty  of  the  Gospel, 
the  "Papa  AngeUcus,"  as  he  was  soon  afterwards 
called, — another  Celestine,  not  like  him  abdicating,  but 
supported  by  a  pious  emperor,  accomplishing  the 
renovation  of  the  Church  and  the  purification  of  the 
clergy.  At  the  same  time,  however,  Rienzo  understood 
how  to  regulate  Rome  as  a  republic,  and  rule  it  almost 
like  a  dictator ;  and  he  strove  to  unite  dissevered 
Italy  into  a  confederation  under  the  leading  of  Rome. 
Yet,  in  this  son  of  an  inn-keeper  on  the  Tiber,  the 
fanatic  and  the  visionary  were  stronger  than  the 
statesman.  Even  after  his  first  fall,  wheij  imprisoned 
b}'  the  Emperor  Charles,  he  firmly  maintained  the 
belief  that  Cyril  had  predicted  his  sufferings  (Pa- 
pcncordt,  p.  241),  and  that  he  was  still  to  be  the 
chosen  instrument  of  God,  through  whom,  at  the 
approaching  great  regeneration  of  the  Church,  should 
be  accomplished  the  political  task  of  raising  up  the 
fallen  Roman  Empire,  and  the  restoration  of  united 
Italy  to  Rome  its  capital.  His  views  were  fun- 
damentally the  same  with  those  of  the  Spiritualists 
or  Fraticclli,  who  at  that  time,  and  long  afterwards,  as 
soon  as  they  could  be  got  hold  of,  were  sentenced  to 
death  at  the  stake.  He  too  was  accused  of  heresy, 
yet  no  sentence  of  death  was  passed  upon  him  at 
Avignon,  at  least  none  was  carried  into   execution. 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.      395 

Later,  ruling  in  Rome  for  the  second  time,  and  now 
sent  there  by  the  pope  himself,  he  ended  his  life  as 
*'  a  tyrant"  by  the  hands  of  the  Roman  populace. 
It  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the  classically  educated 
Petrarch,  who  joyfully  greeted  Rienzo  as  the  saviour 
of  Italy,  also  shared  the  tribune's  prophetic  faith. 
Only,  as  he  had  lived  so  long  in  Avignon,  and  there 
seen  the  corruption  of  the  Papal  Curia  and  the 
degradation  of  the  Church  by  public  simony,  he  was 
more  likely  to  look  for  a  great  and  prolonged  judg- 
ment, than  to  indulge  the  assured  hope  of  a 
simultaneous  political  and  ecclesiastical  regeneration 
uith  which  Rienzo  was  filled.  In  a  sonnet^  that  became 
famous,  he  declares  that  Rome  and  the  Roman  Chair 

1  L'avaraBabilonia,  etc.  Rimedi  Plra'ca,  od.  Carrer  (Padua,  1837), 
ii  ,  434.     [Sonni't  C  V  I.,  Maogrcgor's  translation,  in   The  Sonneif, 
Triumphs,  and  other  Poems  of  Potiarch.  London,  18 19  : 
"Covetous  Babylon  of  wrath  divine 
By  its  worst  crimes  has  drain'd  the  full  cup  now, 
And  for  its  future  gmls  to  whom  to  bow 
Isi)t  Power  nor  Wisdom  ta  en,  but  Love  and  Wine, 
Though  hoping  reason,  I  consume  and  pino. 
Yet  shall  her  crown  deck  some  new  Soldan's  brow, 
Who  shall  again  builil  U|),  and  we  avow 
One  faith  in  God,  in  Rome  one  head  and  shrino. 
Her  idols  shall  be  shatter'd,  in  the  dust 
Her  proud  towers,  enemies  of  Heaven,  be  hurl'd, 
Her  wardens  into  flames  and  exile  thrust. 
Fair  souls  and  friends  of  virtue  shall  the  world 
Possess  in  peace  ;  and  we  shall  see  it  made 
All  gold,  and  fully  its  old  works  display'd."        H.  B.  S.] 


396      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

will  at  some  future  time  (not  so  soon  as  he  could  wish, 
he  says)  be  swallowed  up  by  a  IMohammedan  empire, 
whose  monarch  will  reside  in  Bagdad  ;  ^  then  will  its 
proud  towers  be  consumed,  and  its  idols  be  dashed 
in  pieces  upon  the  ground  ;  but  then  too  will  begin  a 
golden  age  :  he  means  the  age  of  the  Holy  Ghost  pro- 
phesied by  Joachim, 

The  peculiar  prophetic  spirit  of  that  period,  a 
mixture  of  the  Joachimite  and  Minorite  Spiritualism, 
was  incorporated  in  the  person  of  the  unfortunate 
Franciscan,  Jean  de  la  Rochetaillade  ;  but  his  visions 
brought  him  into  a  prison  where  Pope  Innocent  VI. 
thought  he  would  be  harmless.  Like  most  of  the 
seers  of  the  later  centuries  he  did  not  claim  to  be  an 
actual  prophet,  but  only  an  enlightened  investigator, 
to  whom  the  Holy  Ghost  had  disclosed  the  meaning, 
first  of  the  Apocalypse,  and  then  of  the  prophecies  of 
Merlin  and  Joachim.  Froissart,  who  upon  the  whole 
judges  him  very  favorably,  describes  him  as  a  piou3 
and  spiritually-minded  priest,  and  Petrarch  probably 
derived  from  the  visions  of  this  man  his  anticipation 

I  Petrarch  uses  the  word  "  Bahlacco."  Italian  commontators  do 
not  seom  to  Iiave  known  that  tlii.s  moans  Bagdad,  which  at  that 
time  was  reputed  to  bo  tlie  chief  city  of  the  wliole  new  Christian 
■worhl,  tlu:  Home  of  heathendom.  Thus  Baldwin  of  Ninovc  says  in 
his  Corpus  Chronicor.  FLandriie,  cd.  Sniets,  ii.,  713:  "  Jlac^c  ci vitas 
liandas  (Bagdad^  est  caput  totlua  ragauibui,  uvut  lloma  Chris, 
tiauismi." 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.      397 

of  the  spread  of  the  Mohammedan  dominion  over 
Western  Europe,  or  at  least  over  Italy.  Jean  de  la 
Rochetaillade  felt  that  he  was  strongest  where 
Joachim  had  shown  himself  weak,  that  is,  in  exact 
dates  about  the  immediate  future  ;  and  he  compressed 
into  the  narrow  period  of  a  few  years,  from  1356  to 
1370,  a  wonderful  series  of  extraordinary  com- 
plications, decisive  catastrophes  and  sudden  re- 
volutions. In  a  few  months  there  were  to  be  changes 
that  demanded  centuries,  according  to  ordinary 
historical  experience.  To  him,  as  a  genuine  Minorite 
Spiritualist,  the  observance  or  transgression  of  the 
strict  rule  of  poverty  enjoined  by  his  Order  is  the 
very  heart  of  the  whole  history  of  the  world.  ^  Ac- 
cording to  his  fancy,  the  transgressors  of  this  strict 
rule  of  poverty  are  the  true  cause  of  all  the  calamities 
and  maledictions  with  which  the  race  is  now  visited. 
The  salvation  of  the  world  and  of  the  Church  can 
only  come  from  two  "  poor  rope-wearers"  {Corde/ani, 
Franciscans),  one  of  whom  is  to  be  pope,  the  other 
a  cardinal ;  though  such  severe  and  destructive 
conflicts  are  to  precede  that  tlie  whole  Church  would 
be  annihilated  by  them,  were  this  at  all  possible.  And 

1  lie  says  literally  in  his  P  ophetie  Commentary  :  Tratipgressoros 

onlinis    fnitnim    niinoriim    sunt    in   cans.a,    qiKxl   omnes    j)r;er:ii.T3 

tribulationes  infuiulentur  in  orbem."     Johann  de  Riipcsci.ssa,  Liler 

inscri^tus :   Vade  mecum  in  tribulatione,  in  Brown,  Futciculus,  ii.,  403. 
Si 


398      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

then,  before  the  year  1370,  the  universal  "  restoration*' 
will  begin,  the  whole  world  will  be  converted,  gathered 
into  one  Church  and  cordially  submit  to  the  dominion 
of  the  pope.  The  monk  put  the  time  of  his  pro- 
phecies so  near  at  hand  that  people  were  soon 
undeceived,  and  the  court  at  Avignon  thought  itself 
justified  in  keeping  in  prison  until  his  death  a 
prophet  proved  to  be  false.  Froissart  reports  from 
hearsay,  that  many  of  his  prophecies  were  fulfilled. 

Two  prophetic  women,  who  flourished  only  a  short 
time  apart  in  the  latter  half  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
were  g'eatly  rev^ercnced  in  life  and  death.  One  of 
these,  Catharine  of  Siena,  was  and  remained  an 
authority  chiefly  for  the  Italians,  while  the  other, 
Brigitta  (of  Sweden),  was  honored  in  the  whole  of 
Western  Chrisitrndom  as  a  divinely  illuminated  seer, 
and  wds  diligently  read.  St.  Brigitta  became  in  some 
measure,  for  her  own  and  the  subsequent  times,  what 
Jo.ichi.ii  had  been  before  ;  and  in  fact  from  the  close 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  Brigitta  and  Joachim  were 
usually  named  together  as  the  two  leading  prophetic 
authorities.  The  visions  and  revelations  which  she 
left  behind  were  examined  and  sanctioned  by  popes 
and  councils,  and  defended  by  famous  theologians, 
like  Torrecremata.  But  it  remains  a  striking  circum- 
stance that  these  writings,  which  arc  full  of  solemn 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.      399 

monitions  about  the  prevailing  corruptions  of  the 
Church,  should  have  been  so  highly  honored  by  the 
leaders  and  spokesmen  of  the  Church  itself,  that  is  by 
the  very  persons  who  were  doing  nothing  to  remedy 
the  evils  that  were  denounced.  These  writings 
contain  the  severest  complaints  against  the  popes  ;  the 
Roman  Curia  is  painted  in  black  colors,  its  general 
corruption,  its  simony  and  its  traffic  in  sacred  things 
are  condemned  ;  repulsive  pictures  are  presented  of 
the  degeneracy  of  the  clergy,  and  of  the  great 
spiritual  orders  :  and  Brigitta  puts  all  these  charges 
into  the  mouth  of  God  himself.  And  yet  the  Roman 
See  caused  Joachim  to  be  reverenced  as  a  saint ;  and 
it  canonized  not  only  Brigitta,  but  also  Bonaventura, 
who  in  pithy  and  cutting  words  designated  the  Curia 
as  a  wanton  clad  in  scarlet,  and  Vincens  Ferrer,  who, 
fifty  years  after  Brigitta,  painted  the  ecclesiastical 
decay  and  corruptions  in  yet  darker  colors. 

These  prophets  pointed  out  usually  as  in  the  dis- 
tance, but  sometimes  as  near  at  hand,  a  comprehensive 
and  wonderful  purification  and  renovation  of  the 
Church,  to  be  brought  about  by  the  manifest  interposi- 
tion of  heavenly  powers  (though  this  is  not  the  case  with 
Vincens  and  lionaventura).  But  when  this  revolution 
and  universal  conversion  did  not  occur,  or  seemed  to 
be  kept  too  long  in  suspense,  then  it  naturally  came 


400      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

to  pass  that  those  men  who  despaired  of  the  vital 
energy  of  the  Church  as  no  longer  sufficient  for  its  own 
reformation,  at  last  took  the  matter  into  their  own 
hands,  determined  to  cany  out  the  work  of  reform,  if 
necessary,  in  the  convulsions  of  a  violent  and  un- 
sparing revolution.  It  is  only  lately  that  attention 
has  again,  in  Italy,  been  directed  to  the  visions  of  St. 
Brigitta,  which  for  a  long  time  were  almost  forgotten. 
She  testifies  that  she  was  shown  the  Leonine  City, 
or,  as  she  expresses  it,  that  part  of  the  city  from  the 
Vatican  and  St.  Peter's  to  the  Castle  of  St.  Angclo 
and  thence  to  St.  Spirito,  spread  out  like  a  plain 
surrounded  by  a  massive  wall,  in  which  the  different 
dwellings  stood  alongside  of  the  wall  (as  in  a  Belgian 
Beguine  court).  At  the  same  time  she  heard  a  voice 
from  heaven  saying  :  "  The  pope  who  loves  the 
Church  as  well  as  I  and  my  friends  have  loved  it,  will 
take  possession  of  this  abode  so  that  he  can  call  his 
counsellors  to  himself  in  freedom  and  peace." 
{Revel.,  6,  74).  This  has  not  been  overlooked  in 
these  latter  days,  and  St.  Brigitta,  whom  the  Church 
placed  so  high  and  canonized  for  this  very  gift  of 
prophecy,  would  say  to  the  present  pope,  that  he 
will  have  more  peace  and  freedom  for  ecclesiastical 
consultations  with  his  adherents,  if  restricted  to  the 
Leonine  City,  than  as  the  ruler  of  a  State.  ^ 

1  Sue  the  work  of  Gcnnarelli,  recently    published  in   Florence, 
Ca/'iloli per  la  Liberld  Leltgiusa  e  I'onlijicia. 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.     401 

In  the  fourteenth  century,  when  what  was  un- 
natural and  horrible  was  as  easily  believed  as  it  was 
frequently  enacted,  and  when  the  history  of  the 
European  States  was  moving  on  in  morbid  throes,  the 
prophecies,  too,  were  very  apt  to  go  astray  as  soon  as 
they  were  applied  to  definite  dates  and  concrete 
events.  One  example  of  this  :  the  year  1348  and  the 
two  following  years  are  among  the  most  extraordinary 
and  fatal  of  that  period.  The  diary  of  Michael  de 
Leone  ^  communicates  a  prophecy  of  a  "  great 
astrologer"  for  the  year  1348:  "There  will  be  a 
single  master,  the  Roman  Empire  will  be  ag- 
grandized. The  tyrant,  the  king  of  France,  will  fall 
with  his  barons,  the  pope  with  his  cardinals  will  be 
destroyed."  To  this  he  adds  famine  and  mortality, 
some  common -places  about  meteorological  dis- 
turbances, and  a  few  unintelligible  phrases.  Here, 
perhaps,  an  allusion  may  be  found  to  the  fearful  pest 
of  the  Black  Death,  which  then  filled  all  Europe  with 
terror  ;  but  all  the  rest  failed.  So  little  was  the  Roman 
Empire  at  that  time  aggrandized,  that,  on  the 
contrary,  the  first  years  of  the  reign  of  Charles 
IV.  can  only  be  described  as  a  period  of  growing 
decline.     King  Philip  of  France  did  not  fall,  and  the 

1  In  Bohmer,  Fontes  Rer.  German,  i.,  434.  Of  the  Pope  with  the 
cardinals  it  is  said,  Dissipabilur. 


402      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.   . 

pope  with  his  cardinals  sat  at  ease  in  Avignon. 
Here,  too,  we  have  only  wishes  turned  into  pro- 
phecies. 

The  unfortunate  issue  of  the  Crusades,  and  the 
general  dislike  to  abandoning  the  long-cherished 
hope  of  regaining  Palestine  and  the  Holy  City,  gave 
birth  in  Southern  Europe  to  a  special  order  of 
prophecies.  In  a  work  composed  in  1205,  entitled 
"  The  Seed  of  the  Scriptures,"  ^  it  was  predicted  that 
in  a  hundred  years  the  Holy  Land  would  be  regained, 
and  the  Church  delivered  from  that  simony  which 
was  the  cause-  of  its  loss.  Somewhat  later,  in 
Southern  Italy,  a  whole  series  of  similar  prophecies 
was  fabricated,  more  and  more  positive  and  palpable. 
The  Carmelites,  who  thought  that  they  had  claims  to 
certain  places  in  Palestine,  were  especially  active  in 
this  affair.  They  gave  out  that  Christ  had  made 
a  revelation  to  one  of  their  mythical  saints,  St. 
Angelus,  to  the  effect  that  a  holy  and  powerful  king 
of  the  French  house  would  undertake  a  passagimn 
together  with  the  pope,  and  deliver  the  City  from  the 
hands  of  the  infidels.  ^  When  the  Spanish  house  of 
Arragon  began  its  reign  in  Naples,  other  prophecies 

1  l)e  Si'mine.  Scripturnm'n.     Sjc  ihe  Nolilia  Sxcuii,  ia  Karajau'a 
book,  Zur  Ge.ichichle  des  Conrils  von  J^y  v,  s.,   104. 

2  Vita  St.  Angcli  Carmelitx,  in  the  Ada  Sanctor.    Boiland,  Mail, 
ii.,  821. 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.     403 

were  invented,  promising  to  these  princes  or  their 
successors  a  great  Empire,  brilliant  conquests  in  the 
north  and  south,  and  in  addition  the  taking  of 
Jerusalem.  ^ 

For  this  purpose  Joachim  had  to  be  again  used,  and 
along  with  him  Johannes  Aquitanus  and  Johannes 
Rala  were  adduced  as  authors  of  such  prophecies. 
It  was  well  for  those  pious  women,  Catharine  and 
Bn'oitta,  and  in  general  for  all  those  whD  w-tc  then 
trnibled  about  the  conditi  )n  of  the  Church,  that  they 
lived  only  in  the  visions  of  the  future,  while  the  past 
and  the  sequence  of  causes  and  effects  which  had 
produced  the  present  condition  of  the  Church,  were 
unknown  to  them.  The  corruption,  as  it  lay  before 
their  eyes,  they  heLl  to  be  accidental,  the  product  of 
recent  times;  so  that  it  might  vanish  away  in  a 
sudden  revolution,  under  a  fuller  outpouring  of  divine 
grace.  They  would  have  been  lost  in  a  labyrinth  cf 
doubts  and  struggles  of  conscience,  and  wholly  dis- 
heartened, had  they  clearly  seen  that  the  present 
condition  of  the  Church  was  the  consequence  of  a 
regularly  planned  perversion  of  ecclesiastical  ordi- 
nances and  institutions.  Those  well-meaning  prophets 
of  the  "  Papa  Angelicus,"  then  so  common  in  Italy, 

1  S?c  the  r.ollandists,  as  above,  p.  822,  who  have  taken  it  fmru 
the  work  of  Jobauucs  Bouatius,  JJe  I'ro^'hetii  tui  Temporis,  Naples, 
IGOO. 


404      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

had  the  fancy  that  a  single,  pious  man,  spending  a 
Hfe  of  voluntary  poverty  and  austerity,  a  second 
Celestine  V.,  a  stranger  to  all  political  complications, 
would  be  sufficient,  if  raised  to  the  Papal  Chair,  to 
eftect  a  thorough  reformation  of  the  Church  in  the 
shortest  time.  In  point  of  fact,  for  several  centuries, 
not  one  of  the  popes  had  effected  any  earnest  and 
permanent  improvement  in  the  affairs  of  the  Church. 
And  in  the  Ijng  series  of  popes,  from  A.D.  1300  to 
A.D.  15^0,  tiiere  was  not  one  whom  the  popular  belief, 
c  en  for  a  day,  imagined  to  be  the  foretold  "  Angelic 
lope."  1 

But  he  v.as  expected  with  ardent  longing  in  all 
Italy,  as  the  true  Emperor  Frederick  was  expected  in 
Germany.  In  the  year  1514,  Julius  de  Medici  (after- 
wards Pope  Clement  VII.),  then  Vicar  General  of  the 
Bishop  of  Florence,  imprisoned  a  monk  named  Theo- 
dore, who  had  represented  to  the  people  that  an  angel 
had  declared  to  him  that  he,  Theodore,  was  the  "  '  Papa 
Angelico '  expected  by  the  Italian  people."  ^  When 
Savonarola  appeared  publicly  as  a  reformer  in  Flo- 

1  This  name  came  fiom  a  misunderstood  pas.sasjo  in  the  old  Latin 
j)oem  ascribed  to  Tertnllian.  Tliere  the  Hernn^s,  who  wrote  the 
Pastor  or  "  Sheplierd,"  is  spoken  of,  and  this  "  Shepherd  "  or  angel 
is  designated  as  the  angelic  us  pastor. 

2  Oambi,  Slorie  Fiorenline,  iii.,  60.  Moreni,  Memorie  delta  Basilica 
di  S.  Lorenzo,  ii.,  311. 


77/^  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.      405 

rence,  he  was  accused  by  his  opponents  of  really- 
intending  to  have  himself  made  "  Papa  Angelicus  ; " 
and  his  adherents  actually  believed  that  God  had 
chosen  him  for  this.  And  all  the  more,  as  one 
Prospero  Pitti,  a  priest  of  Florence,  believed  to  have 
prophetic  illumination,  had  a  long  time  before, 
together  with  other  events,  foretold  the  coming  of 
this  bold  preaching  monk,  and  the  simultaneous 
elevation  of  the  "  Angel  Pope."  Savonarola  himself 
afterwards,  on  the  rack,  declared  that  his  object  had 
not  been  to  become  pope,  but  to  bring  about  a  general 
Council  for  the  purification  of  the  Church.  ^  As  early 
as  1 49 1,  in  the  very  midst  of  Rome,  a  poorly  clad 
street  preacher  had  appeared,  with  a  wooden  cross  in 
his  hand,  proclaiming  that  the  revelation  of  the 
"Pastor  Angelicus"  was  near  at  hand,  together  with 
heavy  judgments  upon  Florence,  Milan  and  Venice. 
1\\2  citizens  of  Rome,  however,  did  not  show  the 
slightest  longing  for  such  a  pope,  who  must  of  course 
begin  with  stopping  their  most  fruitful  sources  of 
revenue ;  and  the  prophet  was  laughed  at  as  crazy.  ^ 
This  expectation  of  an  "Angel  Pope"  manifestly 
sprang  up  on  Italian  soil.  By  the  simplest  means 
and  i.i  the  shortest  time,  although,  as  it  was  for  the 

1  Guicciardini,  Storia  d'fialia,  3,  7. 

2  btc^jli.  lulcbburu,  iJiurium^  iu  Murutoii,  Scrip.  Ital.  iii.,  2,  p. 
1250. 


4o6      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

most  part  believed,  after  a  great  shedding  of 
blood,  and  after  the  secularization  of  the  Church 
property,  which  had  become  the  mere  rental  of  the 
priests,  he  would  accomplish  the  gigantic  work  of 
reformation,  restoring  the  Church  to  the  truth  of  the 
gospel.  It  was  soon  found  that  a  single  "  Angelicus" 
was  not  sufficient  for  this,  so  the  prophecies  soon 
became  broader,  and  towards  the  end  of  the  fourteenth 
century  the  single  elect  one  was  enlarged  into  a  scries 
of  four  Angel-Popes.  The  first  who  predicted  this 
was  the  venerable  Rabanus,  Archbishop  of  Maycncc, 
who,  by  the  accidental  error  of  being  mistaken  for  the 
author  of  Adso's  work  on  Antichrist,  obtained  the 
name  of  a  prophet,  and  was  credited  with  the  origin 
of  a  prediction  which  briefly  designated  the  four 
popes  who  were  to  bless  the  Church.  Joachim,  in  a 
work  ascribed  to  him,  the  Book  of  Fiore,  and  also 
a  so-called  Dandalus,  who  was  supposed  to  have  been 
the  author  of  a  "  Revelation  of  the  Popes,"  bore 
witness  to  the  four  expected  popes.  ^  The  third  was 
to  uproot  the  temporalities  of  the  Church  (here  is 
betrayed  the  Minorite-Joachimite  origin  of  the  pro- 
phecy);  and.  the  fourth  was  to  wander  through  the 
whole  world   as  a  preacher  and   i^ropagator  of  the 

1  Bisliop  Berthold  of  Chieiusee,  in  Lis  Onus  Ecclesiie,  00,  8,  9, 
gives  tlic  pasb^igt-'s. 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.      407 

Christian  faith.    Then  would  begin  the  catastrophe  of 
the  end. 

This  antagonism  of  the  two  schools  or  tendencies, 
the  Joachimites  and  the  anti-Joachimites,  the  hopeful 
and  the  pessimists,  was  prolonged  for  centuries.  The 
monk  Giovanni  delle  Cclle,  of  Florence,  in  a  work 
written  against  the  FraticelH,  summed  up  this  contrast 
in  a  concise  and  conclusive  manner.^  "  The  former  say 
the  world  must  be  renewed,  I  say  it  must  go  to  the 
ground."  Both  agreed  that  the  Church  was  in  a  most 
woful  condition,  desperately  diseased,  and  so  defaced 
as  to  be  scarcely  recognised.  But,  the  one  said,  it  can 
and  must  be  restored  ;  fearful  and  bloody  judgments 
will  first  come,  but  there  will  follow  a  long  and  blessed 
time  of  ecclesiastical  prosperity.  The  other  said,  this 
decrepitude  of  the  Church  will  not  end  in  restored 
health,  but  all  signs  indicate  death  ;  an  J  the  cata- 
strophes, which,  according  to  biblical  and  traditional 
prophecy,  are  partly  to  precede  the  coming  of  the 
great  adversary  and  partly  to  attend  it,  arc  already 
begun  or  are  near  at  hand.  History  proved  both  to 
be  wrong.  At  the  time  of  the  Great  Schism  (1378- 
1455),   Henry  of  Langcnstcin  reported  the  prophetic 

1  Costoro  dicouo  che'l  raondo  si  dee  rinovcllaro,  odio  dicn  tlio 
dee  rovinare.  In  the  Compendio  di  JJoltrina,  in  tiic  Scelta  di  c'u;i- 
Oiita  LeU.  (Bologna,   18G1),  disp.  8r>,  p.  351. 


408      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

spirit  as  in  full  blossom.  ^  There  were  soothsayers  in 
abundance  who  made  predictions  from  the  course  of 
the  stars,  or  from  conjectures  after  rules  of  their  own, 
and  found  a  hearing  ;  their  vaticinations  were  copied 
and  illuminated,  as  though  they  were  the  literal 
revelations  of  the  Holy  Ghost.  In  short,  they  were 
floating  in  a  sea  of  prophecies  as  to  the  end  of  the 
schism,  all  of  which  came  to  confusion.  Henry 
relates  the  fate  of  one  of  these  prophets  :  There  came 
from  France  to  the  cloister  of  Eberbach  a  learned 
monk,  esteemed  a  saint ;  he  had  received  revelations 
as  to  the  short  duration  of  the  schism,  and  was  sure 
that  it  would  continue  only  a  few  years.  As  the 
years  flowed  on  and  the  schism  still  continued,  he  said 
that  he  had  not  weighed  the  words  of  the  Holy 
Ghost  with  sufficient  care ;  he  now  knew  the  end 
would  come  somewhat  later.  But  this  limit  also 
passed  by,  and  the  double  schism  became  a  triple  one. 
Then  such  a  feeling  of  shame  got  hold  of  him,  that 
he  threw  away  his  monastic  garb,  fled  from  the 
cloister,  and  wandered  around  the  neighboring  forests 
in  wretched  lay  clothing. 

One  of  the  late  fruits  of  the  ideas  and  prophetic 
spirit  of  the  Joachimite  school    is   the    writing  of  a 

1  HciiriLi  clc  Ilassiio,  Liber  contra   Valicinia  Telesphori,  Tlicsaur. 
Auccdot.,  i.,  2,  510. 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.     409 

so-called  hermit  Telesphorus,  who  was  born,  as  he 
says,  at  Cosenza,  in  the  time  of  the  great  ecclesiastical 
rupture,  towards  the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century  ; 
and  he  gave  out  that  he  dwelt  in  the  neighborhood  of 
Thebes,  that  is,  where  Thebes,  now  in  ruins,  once 
stood.  He  relates  that  by  the  advice  of  an  angel, 
who  appeared  to  him  in  1386,  he  buried  himself  in 
the  study  of  the-prophecies  of  Cyril  and  Joachim,  of 
Merlin  and  Uandalus,  of  the  Sibyls  and  of  the  papal 
chronicles.  The  fruit  of  his  study  is  the  glorification 
of  France  and  its  king  and  the  French  pope.  He 
said  that  the  schism  would  come  to  an  end  by  the 
killing  of  the  Anti-Pope  (the  Italian),  which  would  be 
in  the  year  1393  at  Perugia;  then  would  follow  a 
great  renovation  of  the  Church  and  a  return  of  the 
clergy  to  apostolic  poverty,  for  all  their  wealth  and 
estates  would  be  taken  from  them.  At  the  same  time 
great  wars  would  be  waged  between  the  nations 
of  luiropc,  in  which  the  two  allies  would  be  victorious, 
viz :  the  true  (French)  pope  and  the  French  king. 
For  the  true  pope  is  the  one  for  whom  this  king  has 
declared  himself,  since  the  kings  of  France  in  all 
the  papal  divisions  have  always  contended  for  the 
legitimate  pope  ;  and  he  must  conquer  whom  the  pope 
helps,  that  is  the  French  king. 

Only  it  is  remarkable  that  this  Joachimite,  v/ith 

So 


410      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

his  Guelph  sympathies,  who  hides  himself  under  the 
name  of  Telesphorus,  revived  and  appropriated  the 
legend,  now  more  than  a  hundred  years  old,  about 
the  Emperor  Frederick  III.,  who  was  to  be  the 
restorer  of  the  Empire  and  the  Church, — but  gave  it 
an  opposite  sense.  About  the  year  1409 — so  runs 
his  prophecy, — this  German  Frederick,  of  the  seed  of 
the  second  Frederick,  will  be  raised  to  the  imperial 
throne,  will  subdue  the  Roman  Church  and  set  up  a 
German  Anti-Pope,  will  destroy  the  clergy  in  a  blood 
bath,  and  then  march  from  Italy  into  France.  King 
Charles  is  to  be  his  prisoner ;  but,  miraculously  set 
free  from  the  prison,  he  will  fight  with  and  kill 
this  German  Emperor.  Whereupon  the  "  Pastor 
Angelicus,"  meanwhile  raised  to  the  Chair  of  Peter, 
will  forever  deprive  the  German  princes  of  their 
rights  in  the  election  of  the  Emperor,  and  will  elect 
and  crown  King  Charles  as  Emperor.  The  Emperor 
and  the  Pope  are  then  to  march  to  Palestine  and 
conquer  it.  Whereupon  all  the  children  of  men  will 
be  converted,  and  the  world  will  be  at  peace.  ^  And 
so  the  mask  is  taken  off  from  this  prophecy,  pro- 

1  This  work,  ascribed  to  Telcsphonis,  was  printed  at  Venice  in 
1515;  but  this  edition  is  so  rare,  tliat  Papenbrock  and  Moshciin 
know  the  work  only  in  manuscript.  This  Venetian  edition  is  before 
me.  Muratori,  iu  the  Antiquitates  ICal.,  iii,  949,  has  copied  tho 
beginning. 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.     411 

claimed  with  such  pretensions  upon  the  authority  of 
an  angel,  and  widely  read  and  believed ;  and  it  seems  to 
be  only  a  programme  of  the  French  aspirations  and 
political  aims.  It  had  long  been  a  cherished  scheme 
of  the  French  princes  and  statesmen,  to  connect  the 
Empire  with  the  royal  house  of  France.  The  Germans 
now  tried  to  weaken  the  effect  of  this  vaticination  in 
a  twofold  way,  by  a  counter-prophecy,  and  by  a 
theological  refutation. 

The  German  Anti-Telesphorus  prophet  is  said  to 
have  been  one  Gamaleon,  a  relation  of  Pope  Boniface 
VIII.,  and  to  have  imparted  to  the  latter  his  outlook 
into  the  future  in  the  year  1390.^  Like  Tclesphorus, 
he  represents  that  a  French  king  was  crowned  Roman 
Emperor  by  the  Pope.  This  king  is  to  wrest  the 
empire  from  the  restless  Germans;  Rome  and  Italy 
are  to  be  his  confederates.  The  clergy,  the  prophet 
goes  on  to  say,  has  already  levelled  to  the  ground  all 
the  kingdoms  of  this  world  and  all  principalities.  It 
will  at  last  wrest  the  empire  from  the  German  nation, 
and  strive  for  the  annihilation  of  the  secular  princes. 
Then  the  Roman  Emperor  will  march  forth  from  the 
field  of  lilies,  subdue  Rome,  destroy  all  the  lords  and 
tyrants,  the   Roman   Empire,  take  the  French  king 

1  Ilis  prophecy  is  in  the  collection  of  Wolfgang  Lazins:  Frag- 
metitum  Valicinii  cujuadam  Methodii,  etc.     (Vienna,  1547),  f.  liij. 


412      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

prisoner,  and  in  future  the  kingdom  of  France  will  no 
longer  be  honored,  but  only  the  German  empire.  A 
German  patriarchate  will  then  be  established  at 
Mayence,  the  German  land  and  people  be  raised  t«» 
high  honor,  and  live  with  their  new  shepherd  (by 
whom  is  probably  meant  the  patriarch  of  Mayence, 
raised  to  the  papal  dignity) ;  then  comes  an  expedi- 
tion to  the  Holy  Land,  the  last  of  the  Crusades. 
Lazius  in  quoting  this  prophecy  leaves  out  the  long 
description  of  the  ecclesiastical  corruptions  ;  yet  here 
are  found  allusions  to  thoughts  and  aims,  which  after- 
wards became  prominent  in  the  great  Peasants'  Wars. 
The  theological  refutation  of  Telesphorus  was 
undertaken  by  Henry  of  Langenstcin,  the  most 
famous  German  theologian  of  that  time.  His 
book  shows  more  than  all  else,  that  the  Joachimite 
views  had  decided  opponents  in  Germany  as  well  as 
in  France.  Henry  declares  it  i ;  a  heresy  on  the  part 
of  Joachim  and  his  disciple  Telesphorus,  to  speak 
about  the  "  leprosy  of  the  Church  that  has  committed 
whoredom," — a  representation  current  among  the 
Italian  J(a:himites,  especially  since  the  Guclph  party 
had  become  accustomed  to  confound  Pope  and 
Church,  and  to  call  itself  the  party  of  the  Cliurch.  But 
in  Germany  this  still  sounded  strange  and  gave  great 
offense :    it   was   conceded   that   the    Roman    Curia 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.      413 

might  well  deserve  this  apocalyptic  description,  but 
they  could  not  endure  to  have  the  whole  Church  so 
called.  Henry  did  not  find  it  any  the  less  ob- 
jectionable, that  the  prophet  of  Cosenza  should  say 
to  laymen,  that  by  confiscating  ecclesiastical  property 
and  robbing  the  clergy  they  were  executing  the 
divine  will.  ^  Henry  saw  clearly  that  the  prophet 
reverenced  and  flattered  the  French  court,  without 
being  aware  of  the  real  connection  of  things.  For 
there  was  then  on  foot  a  plan  for  bringing  Genoa 
under  French  domination,  which  was  carried  out  at 
Christmas,  in  the  year  1386.  Just  before  this, 
Telesphorus  sent  his  book  with  a  dedication  to  the 
doge,  Antonio  of  Genoa,  doubtless  in  order  to  teach 
him  that  the  republic,  which  still  accepted  the 
Emperor's  sovereignty,  would  do  better  to  submit  to 
the  French  King  Charles  VI.,  since  he  was  soon  to  be 
emperor  hniisclf 

At  last,  as  the  human  race  approached  the  great 
epoch  of  the  Reformation  and  the  rupture  of  Christen- 
dom, the  prophetic  voices  became  more  threatening, 

1  If  he  had  liail  a  moro  intimate  acqnainlanco  with  the  Spirit riales 
and  Fiutinlh',  still  mim.'roiis  in  Sontii  rn  (J'lmany,  li:;  would  luivc 
ri'id^Mizcd  in  Tidesi)lu)rns  a  ni  inl>  r  of  this  ( oniuiMnity.  l-'ov  ainc  tiij 
tile  lhii>,i!:s  wl)i(  li.  aeeordins  to  his  pr.di'tion,  w  Te  soon  to  le 
fiiilillcd,  belong .(1  the  dissolution  of  uU  tiie  spiritual  on!  i-^,  to  ho 
followed  by  the  founding  of  a  new  one,  which  Joacliim  had  aiivady 
foretold  ;  and  all  future  popes  were  to  tunic  from  tlie  latter. 


414      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

and  the  thrusts  against  the  papacy  more  sharp.  The 
Irish  used  to  relate  about  their  St.  Columba,  that 
God  was  pleased  to  give  him  the  spirit  of  prophecy 
in  the  shape  of  a  wonderfully  beautiful  queen  {Acta 
Sanctorum,  Bolland.  Januar.  ii.,  330)  ;  and  so  we  may 
say  that  the  prophetic  spirit  rf  those  times  had  a 
stonied  gorgon-like  brow,  or  at  the  best  appeared 
like  a  sorrowful  widow  clad  in  garments  of  mourning. 
There  was  no  longer  need  of  any  special  prophetic 
gift,  for  every  one  believed  that  he  could  announce 
with  certainty  the  breaking  forth  of  a  great 
catastrophe.  Centuries  before  this  the  revered  Bishop 
Grosseteste  of  Lincoln  had  declared  upon  his  dying 
bed,  that  the  evils  of  the  Church  could  be  healed  only 
by  fire  and  sword  ;  and  now  Macchiavclli,  a  man  of  a 
very  different  spirit,  but  the  most  acute  observer  of 
his  times,  declared  that  one  of  two  things  must  come 
upon  the  Roman  Church,  destruction,  or  a  terrible 
chastisement.  ^  At  the  same  time  Pico  of  Mirandula 
believed,  as  he  declared  in  his  Oration  to  Leo  X., 
that  in  Italy,  of  whose  ecclesiastical  condition  he 
drew  a  fearful  description,  the  severe  and  bloody 
punishment  of  an  avenging  Providence  had  already 
begun,  and  still  worse  evils  were  to  follow. 

1  Esser  propinqno  scn/.a  dubbio  o  la  rovina  o  il  flagollo :  Dixrorsi 
topra  lAvio,  i.,  12  Opere,  Fircnzc  18-43,  273.  lloscoo,  iu  his  Li/e  and 
J'onC'Jkate  of  Leo  X,  gives  tho  oration  of  Tico. 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.     415 

Just  before  this,  Italy  had  seen  in  one  of  its  great 
men  the  most  renowned  prophet  since  Joachim, 
Girolamo  Savonarola,  the  preaching  monk,  who 
atoned  with  his  life  for  his  firm  faith  in  his  mission  as 
a  seer,  and  for  the  boldness  of  his  warnings.  As  to 
the  prophetic  gift  of  Savonarola,  the  judgment  of  his 
contemporaries  was  as  divided  as  is  that  of  later 
times.  But  it  is  more  and  more  conceded,  that 
this  extraordinary  man  actually  possessed  a  peculiar 
gift  of  divination,  as  the  best  of  his  biographers, 
Villari,  has  declared.  The  historian  Comincs,  who 
always  speaks  of  him  with  high  veneration,  asserts 
that  he  had*told  him  things  which  nobody  believed, 
and  which  had  all  been  confirmed.  Even  Macchi- 
avclli  did  not  venture  to  deny  his  prophecies, 
"  because  we  must  speak  with  reverence  of  so  great 
a  man."  {Discorsi,  i.,  12,  p.  272.)  Guicciardini 
withholds  his  judgment  until  time  shall  have  decided 
about  his  predictions. 

Two  statesmen  have  boasted  that  in  the  com- 
munities in  which  they  lived  nothing  important  ever 
occurred  which  they  had  not  foreseen.  Cicero  claims 
this  for  himself ;  and  the  other  one,  the  French 
Du  Vair,  goes  still  further  and  asserts  that  not  only 
in  the  State,  but  also  in  his  private  life,  nothing  ever 
came  to  pass  which  he  had  not  beforehand  seen  to 


41 6      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

be  coming.  ^   It  seems  to  me  that  Savonarola  had  a 
similarly  organized  nature. 

Savonarola's  prophecies  were  partly  the  result  of  his 
natural  insight  and  rare  penetration,  in  part  they 
were  the  conclusions  he  drew  from  the  course  of 
Jewish  history  as  applied  to  the  Christian  Church  ; 
and,  in  fine,  they  were  also  the  interpretations  of 
visions  which  he  had  had, — as  he  himself  tells  of  one 
such  vision  of  two  immense  crosses,  which  were  shown 
him  on  Good  Friday  night,  1492,  with  other  won- 
derful pictures ;  and  he  gives  an  interpretation  of 
them.  2  The  future  holy  pope,  in  whose  speedy 
coming  he-believed,  was  brought  in  vision  before  him; 
he  saw  his  face  and  form,  without  knowing  who  he 
was  among  the  living,  whether  an  Italian  or  a 
foreigner.  ^  That  this  disposition  to  believe  in  visions, 
his  own  and  those  of  others,  was  in  him  developed 

1  Cicero's  statement  is  in  his  Epistolx  Famil,  6,  G.  Dii  Vair  was 
Prosident  of  the  Parliament  of  Provence,  and  the  first  parlianuntary 
orator  of  his  century  ;  he  lived  in  the  times  of  llmry  IV  ,  and  of  tiie 
Burgher  wars.  His  declarations  referred  to  aliove  are  <]  noted  in 
Munuge,  Observations  sur  la  langue  Fran(}aisc^  ii.,  110.  'i'here  is, 
liowever,  this  difference  between  the  llonian  antl  tlie  FrriKhmiin  ; 
Du  Vair  ascrilies  his  anticipations  to  a  saj^'ac  ity  wiiii  h  nattue  had 
given  him,  while  Cicero  believes  himself  indrhted  tor  his  divimilio  to 
pr<jlonged  stuily  and  political  experience  gradually  attained  by  umny 
years  of  service. 

2  Comiiendium  liei  elationum,  Ulm,  14G9,  i'ol.  9. 

3  Oracolo  (lella  lit  nova zione,  Fol.  115. 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.      417 

even  to  superstition  is  proved  by  his  reliance  upon 
the  angelic  voices,  which  Marelii,  a  comrade  of  his 
Order,  maintained  that  he  had  heard.  (See  Villari,  i., 
296.)  Thus  it  came  to  pass,  that  his  pohtical  pro- 
phecies were  fulfilled,  but  his  religious  ones  were  not 
fulfilled.  His  reputation  as  a  prophet  was  confirmed 
and  widely  diffused  by  his  prediction  of  what  nobody 
was  looking  for,  viz  :  the  French  invasion  of  Italy 
under  Charles  VIII.,  and  the  expulsion  of  the  Medici 
from  Florence.  But  he  also  foretold  with  all  definitencss 
a  speedy  and  entire  devastation  of  Rome  by  fire  and 
sword,  because  Rome  was  the  great  deceiver  of  all 
Christendom  and  the  source  of  its  crimes.  ^  This 
destruction  never  occurred.  He  further  maintained 
that  after  many  grievous  visitations  and  woes,  with 
which  God  was  about  to  chastise  his  Church,  it  would 
again  be  built  up  as  it  was  in  the  times  of  the  apostles. 
Savonarola  starts  with  the  idea  that  when  the  Church 
had  sunk  so  deep,  and  was  so  thoroughly  gangrened 
as  was  then  the  case  in  Latin  Christendom,  especially 
in  Italy,  there  must  ere  long  be  a  renovation  ;  or 
else  we  must  suppose  that  God  will  forever  cast  off 
his  bride,  as  he  formerly  did  the  Synagogue,   and 

1  Oracolo  della  Renovazione  ffella  o'A««aa  (Vt'iiico,  l.ltS),  fol.  101. 
In  this  work  the  Florentine  Dominican,  Luca  Bettini,  bring.s  t<.>gclhcr 
all  of  Savonarola's  prophecies  about  the  Chun  h. 


41 8      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

consign  it  to  a  hopeless  and  helpless  perdition  ;  this, 
however,  is  inconceivable  on  the  principles  of  faith. 
But  such  a  reform  as  he  had  in  mind  and  longed  for 
never  occurred.  He  was  no  more  successful  in  his 
assurance  that  a  universal  conversion  of  unbelievers 
would  follow  the  ecclesiastical  renovation.  On  the 
other  hand,  he  clearly  foresaw  that  his  prophetic 
mission,  and  the  whole  position  into  which  he  did  not 
force  himself  so  much  as  he  was  forced  by  others, 
would  inevitably  result  in  his  own  destruction.  He 
longed,  he  said,  to  return  from  the  deep  sea  on  which  he 
was  afloat  to  the  haven  from  which  he  came,  but  it  was 
no  longer  possible  ;  the  cause  he  represented  would  be 
victorious,  but  he  would  suffer  death  from  it  ;  for  the 
master,  who  bore  the  hammer,  would  cast  him  away 
when  he  had  made  use  of  him.  At  the  end  of  March, 
1498,  he  was  still  preaching  thus:  "Rome  will  not 
quench  these  flames,  and  if  these  be  quenched  God 
will  kindle  others,  and  they  are  already  kindled  all 
around,  only  you  do  not  know  it."  On  the  23d  of 
May,  1498,  he  was  executed,  the  Pope  said,  because 
he  was  a  heretic ;  his  Order  and  his  numerous 
adherents  said,  because  he  was  a  witness  of  the  truth. 
A  sacred  ofilcc  has  been  dedicated  to  him  as  a  holy 
martyr,  and  persons,  whom  Rome  itself  has  canonized, 
like  Catharina  Ricci  and  Philip  Ncri,  have  revei'enccd 
and  called  upon  him  by  this  name. 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.      419 

In  Germany,  down  to  the  period  of  the  Re- 
formation, a  certain  popular  treasury  of  prophecies 
was  gathered  up,  which  was  at  once  the  expression 
and  the  nutriment  of  the  national  wishes  and 
anticipations.  Methodius,  Joachim,  Brigitta,  Hilde- 
garde,  and  the  so-called  Sibylline  Revelations,  they 
had  in  common  with  the  whole  western  world. 
There  has  never  appeared  in  Germany  a  man  like 
Savonarola,  who  claimed  prophetic  endowments  and 
was  received  as  possessing  them.  But  the  names  of 
mythical  personages  were  attached  to  the  prophecies 
which  had  sprung  up  in  the  heart  of  the  people. 
Thus  they  had  an  Eremite  prophet,  John  Lichten- 
bergcr.  It  is  said  in  a  poem  on  the  war  of  Cologne 
in  1745: 

**  This  thing  three  years  before  to  pass  it  came 
One  in  Mayence  did  publicly  foretell : 
John  Lichtenbcrger  is  the  prophets  name. 
In  the  whole  kingdom  is  he  known  full  well."  i 

This  only  means  that  the  Lichtenbcrger  prophecies 
were  known  through  all  Germany,  but  not  that  the 
prophet  in  person  was  universally  known.  The  pro- 
phecies which  bore  his  name  were  a  widely-circulated 

1   LiliencroT),  llislor.  Volkdicier,  ii.,  53  : 

•    Uiis  hat  vor  (Ircicn  Jalin  n  offcnbar 
Gf\vi.iss;ij;tt  ciiKT  voit Mainz  fiir  war, 
Joliaiin  Lit  htcnborpor  ist  er  gonannt^ 
lu  dcm  gauzcQ  Bcich  wol  bckaant. 


420      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

and  favorite  book,  as  is  proved  by  the  great  number 
of  editions  down  to  1528.  They  are  a  mixed  col- 
lection, dating  from  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
relating  to  Germany  and  particularly  to  the  Nether- 
lands, and  are  not  the  work  of  any  single  man. 

A  Lollard  praying-brother,  named  Reinhardt, 
published  a  book  on  "  The  Great  Tribulations," 
introducing  the  Sibyls  and  Brigitta,  and  predicting 
great  bloodshed  among  the  clergy  in  the  time  of 
the  Emperor  Maximilian,  Luther,  who  re-published 
the  Lichtenberger  book  in  1527,  remarked  in  the 
preface  that  since  the  war  of  the  Peasants  in  1525 
the  minds  of  the  clergy  had  been  at  rest,  as  they 
believed  that  the  Lichtenberger  prophecies  had  been 
fulfilled,  and  that  the  danger  was  over. 

There  liad  been  for  some  time  a  general  feeling 
of  anxiety  among  the  German  clergy  in  regard  to  the 
impending  catastrophe  ;  it  was  felt  that  among  all 
classes  of  the  nation  there  was  great  hatred  and 
contempt  of  the  class  whose  morals  were  so  de- 
based and  whose  system  was  so  thoroughly  corrupt. 
Two  South-German  priests,  Wolfgang  Aytinger  in 
Augsburg,  and  Joseph  Griinpeckh  in  Ratisbon, 
gave  utterance  to  this  anxious  foreboding,  the  for- 
mer in  the  year  1496,  in  a  commentary  on  Mctho- 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.     ^21 

dius  ;  ^  tlic  latter  in  the  year  150S,  in  a  "  Mirror  of 
Vision,"  2  whose  title-pajc  exhibited  a  church  falHng 
in  tlie  midst  of  flames.  While  Aytinger  attributed 
the  chief  guilt  to  the  profligate  condition  of  the 
Roman  Curia,  \vhich  he  says  had  become  an  all- 
destroying  hellish  abyss,  Griinpeckh  declared  that 
for  years  there  had  been  an  expectation  of  an  ap- 
proaching tempest,  which  was  to  burst  over  Church 
and  clergy,  throughout  all  Germany.  Wherever  men, 
women  and  children  assembled,  there  it  was  said, 
"  The  clergy  is  shortly  to  be  attacked."  Such  pro- 
phecies were  spread  among  the  people,  partly  by 
pious  and  well-meaning  persons,  who,  in  spite  of  some 
divine  illumination,  were  yet  narrow-minded,  and 
partly  by  the  malicious,  who  longed  for  the  spoils 
of  the  ecclesiastical  property.  Grunpeckh  thought 
that  a  more  fatal  corruption  than  that  prevalent  in 
the  Church  could  hardly  be  imagined  ;  still  he  warned 
the  laity  not  to  rejoice  too  much  over  the  threatened 
visitation  upon  the  priests,  since  they  too  must  at  last 
drink  the  dregs  and  poison  of  the  cup  given  to  the 
clergy.     Another  priest,  John   Ilagen,^  dean  of  St. 

1  Tractatus  super  Methoflium,  (Au^rihurfx,   1490). 

2  ypcculum    nalurali^,  cc/fs!is  eC  i>roj>hilic,->;  visionis.     Niircmli.Tg, 
1508. 

3  Johnnnis  nb  Iiidnfrine   Zufchrift,  etc.,  iu  the  Xtue  BtUr^.ge  von 

theologisclun  Sac/un.  1752,  p.  45G-177. 
36 


422      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

Leonard's  in  Frankfort,  spoke  still  more  plainly.  He 
predicted,  as  the  result  of  his  astrological  studies,  a 
great  revolution  in  the  Church,  and  the  exposure  and 
humiliation  of  the  arrogant  clergy.  "  There  is  good 
reason  why  we  clergy  should  be  the  object  of 
universal  hatred  ;  we  •  deserve  it." 

Fear,  grief  and  bitterness  gave  origin  to  many 
a  prophecy  in  Germany,  after  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century.  The  disaffection  of  the  clergy 
itself  was  as  great  as  that  of  the  laity,  since  the  Papal 
Chair  had  disappointed  all  the  hopes  of  Church 
renovation,  founded  on  the  Council  of  Basle.  One 
such  prophetic  voice  from  the  clergy  was  ascribed 
to  the  most  renowned  German  theologian  of  his  time, 
Henry  of  Langenstein  (commonly  called  Henry  of 
Hesse),  although  it  was  of  later  origin.  It  charged 
with  simony  every  pope  and  every  bishop  since 
Nicolas  HI.  (1277),  and  promised  a  reformation  of 
the  Romish  Church  by  means  of  the  Germans,  the 
French  and  their  Emperor.  ^ 

The  feeling  constantly  grew  stronger,  that  though 
help  for  the  Church  must  in  general  come  from  the 
laity,  it  must  above  all  come  from  a  pious  emperor. 
It  was  even  reported  that  Christ  said  to  St.  Brigitta  : 
"  The   king   (for  whom  she  had  just  been  praying) 

1  Denis,  Codicet  MS.  theologici  Biblioih.  Vindob.,  p.  1572. 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.     423 

shall  assemble  wise  and  religiously-enlightened  men, 
and  consult  with  them  how  the  fallen  walls  of  the 
Church  can  be  rebuilt,  the  clergy  be  delivered  from  its 
pride,  and  become  again  humble  and  modest.  "  For, 
verily,  my  Church  has  wandered  far  from  me."  {Re- 
vclationcs,  6,  26,  p.  436.) 

So  it  came  to  pass  that  German  prophecies  dwelt 
much  upon  a  pope  who  was  to  arise  in  Germany. 
According  to  one  prophecy,  he  was  first  to  be 
appointed  by  the  princes  and  patriarch  of  Maycnce, 
and  afterwards  crowned  as  pope  upon  German  soil. 
As  Patriarch  of  the  German  Church,  he  would  place 
the  crown  upon  an  emperor  chosen  from  the  Rhine 
provinces,  then  take  arms  against  the  emperor  with 
the  lilies  (the  French  usurper  of  the  imperial  dignity, 
as  Tclesphorus  had  called  him),  kill  him  and  take 
possession  of  Rome.  This  was  proclaimed  from  the 
pulpit,  in  1409,  by  John  Wunschclburg,  a  priest 
of  Ambcrg,^  that  is  at  the  time  of  the  schism,  when 
the  thought  had  sprung  up  in  many  a  mind  whether 
this  schism,  brought  about  by  the  conflicting  claims 
of  France  and  Italy  for  the  possession  of  the  Papacy, 
could  not  be  best  adjusted  by  the  election  of  a  Ger- 
man pope. 

A  work  of  Bishop  Berthold,  "  The  Burden  of  the 

1  Jo.  Wolfii,  Lectionei  Memorab.  i,  728. 


424      THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC. 

Church,"  ^  may  be  considered  as  the  close  and  hmit  of 
mediaeval  prophecy.  The  author's  views  are  those  of 
the  Joachimites  ;  he  holds  to  the  theory  of  the  seven 
periods  of  the  Church.  His  authorities  and  sources, 
besides  Methodius,  are  Cyril  and  the  Abbot  of 
Calabria,  the  canonized  prophets  Vincens  Ferrer, 
Catharine  of  Siena,  Brigitta,  and  Hildegarde.  As  in 
an  impressive  way  he  gives  a  dark  view  of  the  great- 
ness and  universality  of  the  degradation  of  the  Church, 
and  holds  up  a  mirror  to  the  Roman  Curia  as  the 
chief  transgressor,  so,  also,  his  views  and  expectations 
of  the  immediate  future  are  the  darkest  that  can  be 
imagined.  He  had  no  conception  of  the  historical 
import  of  Luther's  doctrines,  and  mentions  the 
Lutherans  only  as  a  new  and  mischievous  sect.  He 
had  no  doubt  as  to  the  uprooting  of  the  Pajoal  Chair 
{cxtcnniniiun),  which,  however,  was  to  be  succeeded 
by  a  re-establishment  and  glorification.  He  shows 
plainly  how  strong  at  that  time,  in  Germany,  was  the 
conviction  that  the  Italian  nation,  incorporated  on  its 
worst  side  by  the  Papal  Curia,  had  committed  a  great 
political  as  well  as  social  and  religious  crime  against 
Germany  ;  and  that  now  both  nations,  the  Italian  first, 
since  the  year  15  lO,  and  the  German  soon  after,  must 
do  [)cnance  for  it  in  bloody  wars  and  revolutions. 
1  "Burden,"  after  Is.  xiii.,  meaning  a  prophetic  utterance. 


THE  PROPHETIC  SPIRIT,  ETC.      425 

Kindred  to  this,  and  yet  pervaded  by  an  entirely 
different  spirit,  is  the  "  RoUhart "  of  the  Swiss  poet, 
Pciniphilus  Gen^enbach.  ^  All  the  prophetic  person- 
alises so  familiar  to  the  Germans,  Methodius,  Cyril, 
Joachim,  Brigitta,  Reinhart,  are  there  presented  ;  the 
po[)e,  the  emperor,  the  kings  of  France,  the  Turk,  put 
questions,  and  the  answers  tiiey  receive  form  an  entire 
proplictic  course  of  past  and  future  events  down  to 
the  appearance  of  Antichrist.  The  object  seems  to 
have  been  to  make  the  Emperor  Maximilian  feel 
obliged  to  fulfil  the  prophecy  that  a  German 
emperoi  or  king  is  to  conquer  Rome  and  reform  the 
Church. 

"Who  can  this  emperor  be?"  asked  Maximilian, 
wheri  Brigitta  told  him  that  a  king  was  to  reform  the 
Chu'ch  entirely  and  repair  the  losses  of  the  kingdom. 
Tiiereupon  his  own  name  was  given  :  and  Methodius 
also  comforted  him  with  the  assurance  that  the  Roman 
Empire  would  never  fall. 

"  My  thoughts  are  not  your  thoughts  ;  as  the  heaven 
is  higher  than  the  earth,  so  are  my  thoughts  higher 
than  your  thoughts."  (Is.  iv.,  8,  9).  With  these  in- 
phctic  words,  which  must  already  have  occurred  to 
many  a  reader,  we  close  this  account  of  the  p^ropjiccies 
current  for  fifteen  hundred  years  after  Christ. 

1  Pampliilus  Gcngenbach,  von  Godekc  (Hannover,  1856),  p.  77  etc. 


APPENDIX  A. 


The  story  of  the  Papess,  as  given  in  the  Te-  The  true 
gernsee   manuscript  in   the   Royal    Library  at  'J^^^ 
Munich  {Cod.  lat.  Tegerns.,  781),  is  as  follows  : —  jutta. 
*'  Item  papa  Jutta,  qui  non  fuit  alamannus,  sicut  Giancis 
"  mendose  fabulatur  chronica  martiniana.  Glan-  ""^ '  * 

daughter 

**  cia  puella,  fuit  filia  ditissimi  civis  Thessalici,  ofaThes- 
**  cujus  omnis  meditatio  aequivoca  nota  sapientiae  saiian,  a 
"  vcrsabatur  ;  hujus  erat  intcllectus  perspicax  et  ^^^^'*^^ 

and  stu- 

"  ingenium  docile,  quam  penitus  assidua  legendi  ^^^^^ 
*'  solcrtia  vegctabant ;  haic  tempore  brcvi  sibi  child.  At 
*' famam  per  omncs  circuitus  vindicabat ;  scd  ^'^'"'"''^''® 
"  pra^dicatas  laudes  rci  Veritas  excedebat.    Erat  , 

^  lovo  with 

"  Pircius  in  scholis  illi  juvenculus  coa;vus.    Iluic  rircius, 
"  noto  discendi  capacitatis  ingenio,  patcrnis  opi-  *"'•  "lop- 
**  bus  et   omni   quasi   frugaHtatc,    consiliis   hos 

""  him, 

"  ambos,  quos  a^tas  aiquavcrat,  cxaequat  amor,  dresjcdin 
"  de  jugalitatc  tractatur,  parcntcs  abnuunt.  Crcs-  man's 
"  cit    inter   hos   ardor   et   concupiscentia,    cum    "  *** 

The  two 

"  diebus  sensim  pullulat  actas,  in  oscula  veniunt  y,^^^^^ 
*'  et  amplcxus  impaticntes.     Dcniquc  latibulum  Athens, 
"  pctunt  et  ardcntes  junguntur.     Ludo  veneris  '^^^'^'> 
*' consummato  de  rccessu  tractant.     IIkc  inter 

maincd  at 

"  mulicrcs,  hie  inter  homines  virtutum  dotibus  students 


learning. 
Thence 


428  APPENDIX  A. 

for  a  long  "  ac  discipHnarum  studiis  optant  fieri  singulares, 
time.  She  u  ^j.  y^^ti^gjiag  jj-e  deliberant  inter  ipsos.   Uterque 

displayed 

great  "  ^^  Q^ot  potcst  opulcntiis  munit  ;  habitus  ges- 
abiiity,  "  tusque  capit  ilia  viriles  et  similes  animo  simul 
and  be-     «<  habitus    mirandos    ac    spcctabilcs    illos    facit. 

came  pro-   ,,  n-y    ,,  .    ,  1  •     1 

.         Nulla    mora    properant    Athenas,    ubi    \o\\\io 

ficient  in  r      r  '  => 

all  the  "  tempore  student,  et  ilia  doctior,  quidquid  est 
arts  and     "  divinas  facultatis,  aut  humance  disciplinse  vel 

sciences.     .,  .  ,      ..  .,        ,     .,,         .      .,.,  , 

artium  studiosa  capescit,  et   ille  similiter  est 

He  also 

gained  a  "  o^n'^i  sapientia  gloriosus.  Hos  non  Athcnae 
namefv^r    "  solum,   sed    universa    Graecia   veneratur.     Hi 

"  Romam  veniunt,  in  omni  facultate  studium 
theyinov-  "  pronuHciant,  ad  hos  omnes  conveniunt  tain 
ed  to         <'  scholares    quam    quarumcunque    scientiarum 

"  doctores  et  quo  profundiores  acccdunt,  quas 

where  ^         ^  '     ^ 

they  at-  "  hauriant  venas,  uberiores  inveniunt.  IIos 
tractod  a   "  omncs  et  omnium  facultatum  doctores  adorant, 

larao  . 

„     ,      ,     hos  omnes  cives  venerantur  et  horum  mores 

nuinbcrof 

scholars.  "  modestlamquc,  virtutes  et  sapicntiam  praedicat 
On  the       "  omnis  Roma,  qui  amplius  in  omnem  terrain 

death  of  -r-v       ■  r 

penctrat  sonus  eorum.     Dcniquc  luncto  pon- 

the  pope,         ■*  ^  '■ 

Giancia  "  tificc  mulicr  nominatione  omni  labio  vocatur 
waa  una-  <•  ^^j-  yocc  Hon  impugnata,  Romanis  hortantibus, 

niniuusly 

elected  to  "  ^'J  apostolatus  apicem  promovetur.  Cardina- 
Bi.ccced.    "  latur  Pircius  amasius*,  vitam  sagacitcr  agunt  et 

I'ircius 

wasiuado  "  in  eorum  gubernatione  tota  laetatur  ecclcsia. 


APPENDIX  A.  429 

"  Sed  quum  status  adulter!  raro  radices  figunt,  cnriinai. 
"  vol  si  {Terminent,  non  roborant,  et  si  roborent,    ... 

t>  >  '  '  while 

"  non  pcrdurant,  accidit  ergo,  quod  antea  nun-  oia"cia 

bccamo 

"  quam,    fucata    mulier    papissa   pra^gnatur   ct  „re^r„,,nt, 
**  insueta  tempora  partus  ignorans  ibat  ad  ecclc-  °"''k"*° 

^  ^  ^  _     birth  to  a 

"  siam  sancti  Johannis  Lateranensis  cum  uni-chiUoa 
"  verso  clero  missam  solemncm  celebratura.  Sed  . 

to  mays, 

"  inter   Colosseum   et   ecclcsiam    s.    Clemcntis  dying oa 

the  spot, 

"  coacta  doloribus  cecidit  et  puerum  pepcrit  ct  which 'he 
"  pariter   expiravit.     Ila^c   viam    papa    semper""''®'""^'' 
**  evilat  et  ante  coronationem  papa  semper  ma-  avoid. 
"  nibus  virilia  palpantibus  exploratur,"etc. 

"  Vide,  quos  ad  gradus  virtus  et  sapientia  extollit 
Pusillos  sic  altos  in  sapientia  protcxit;  sed  niliil 
E5t  omnis  nostra  sagacitas  vel  industria  contra  Dcum. 
Vide  carmina,  qua^  scquuntur. 

D. secret  ut  leges  peregrina  juvencula  plenas 
Giancia  clara  segcs  mulicrum  transit  Atlicnas 
Cum  juvene  cupido  vir  facta,  sed  ista  cupido 
Militat  in  turbis  ac  doctores  docet  urbis. 
Papa  lit  et  paerum  pariens  et  moritur  prope  clerum, 

Moralitas. 

Nil  mage  grandescit  quam  doctus  jure  fruendo. 
Nil  mage  vilescit  quam  vir  sine  lege  fruendo. 

Papa,  pater  paupcrum,  p;pcrit  papissa  papcllum,'*etc. 


APPENDIX   B. 

The  following  additional  particulars  about  the  fable 
of  Pope  Joan,  gathered  mainly  from  Baring-Gould's 
Curious  Myths  of  the  Middle  Ages,  the  notes  to 
Soames's  edition  of  Mosheim's  Ecclesiastical  Histojy, 
and  the  article  Papesse  in  Peter  Bayle's  Dictio/iNairc, 
"will  be  of  interest  to  those  who  care  to  pursue  the 
subject  further. 

It  is  greatly  to  the  discredit  of  Moshcim  that  he 
should    write    as    follows    of   this    monstrous  story : 

*  Between  Leo  IV.,  who  died  A.l).  855,  and  Benedict 
'  ///.,  a  woman,  who  concealed  her  sex  and  assumed 
'  the  name  of  John,  it  is  said,  opened  her  way  to  the 
'  pontifical  throne  by   her   learning  and  genius,  and 

*  governed  the  Church  for  a  tinie.  She  is  commonly 
'  called  the  Papess  Joanna.  During  the  five  subse- 
'  quent  centuries  the  witnesses  to  this  extraordinary 
'  event  are  without  number  ;  nor  did  any  one,  prior 

*  to  the  Reformation  by  Luther,   regard  the   thing 

*  as  either  incredible,  or  disgraceful  to  the  Church. 
'  But  in  the  seventeenth  century,  learned  men,  not 
'  only  among  the  Roman  Catholics,  but  others  also, 
'  exerted  all  the  powers  of  their  ingenuity  both  to 
'  invalidate  the  testimony  on  which  the  truth  of  the 

430 


APPENDIX  B.  431 

"  story  rests  and  to  confute  it  by  an  accurate  com- 
"  putation  of  dates.  There  are  still,  however,  very 
"  learned  men  who,  while  they  concede  that  much 
"  falsehood  is  mixed  with  the  truth,  maintain  that 
"  the  controversy  is  not  wholly  settled.  Something 
'  must  necessarily  have  taken  place  at  Rome  to  give 
"  rise  to  this  most  uniform  report  of  so  many  ages ; 
"  but  even  yet  it  is  not  clear  what  that  som.ething 
"  was."  ■  Book  III.,  part  2,  chap,  ii.,  §  4.  Tant  il  est 
certain  que  les  mcmes  choscs  nous  paraissent  v6rita- 
bles  ou  fausses  d  mesure  qu'elles  favoriscnt,  ou  notre 
parti,  ou  le  parti  opposd.  One  can  hardly  doubt  that 
it  was  Protestant  prejudice  which  made  Moshcim 
*' li'ish  to  believe"  (as  Gibbon  says  of  a  dubious  story 
which  pleases  him)  that  the  myth  of  Pope  Joan  mij.;ht 
be  true.  It  matters  little  to  Protestants,  as  Ba}'lc 
remarks,  whether  the  Papess  existed  or  not ;  it  matters 
much  that  they  should  not  give  a  handle  to  people  to 
regard  them  comme  des  gens  opinidtres,  ct  qui  ne 
vculent  jamais  demordre  des  opinions  prccon^ues. 
Moshcim  says,  "During  the  five  subsequent  centuries 
"  the  witnesses  to  this  extraordinary  event  are  with- 
"  out  number  ;"  he  omits  to  add  that  they  occur  in 
the  last  of  the  five  centuries.  For  more  ihan  350  jcars 
after  the  death  of  Leo  IV.  there  is  absolute  silence 
about  the  Papess.     Nor  is  it  true  that  "  no  one  prior 


432  APPENDIX  B. 

*'  to  Luther's  time  regarded  the  thing  as  incredible 
"  or  disgraceful  to  the  Church."  Most  people  regarded 
it  as  a  grievous  scandal,  and  some  doubted  the  fact. 
Platina,  who  wrote  before  Luther  was  born,  after  tell- 
ing the  story,  says,  "  haec  quae  dixi,  vulgo  feruntur, 
"  incertis  tamen  et  obscuris  auctoribus  ;  quae  idco 
*'  ponere  breviter  et  nude  institui,  ne  obstinate  et  per- 
*'  tinaciter  omisisse  videar,  quod  fere  omnes  affirmant." 
— Lives  of  the  Popes,  John  VIL 

It  is  almost  slaying  the  dead  to  argue  against  the 
Story  of  Pope  Joan  ;  but  it  is  worth  while  to  give  a 
specimen  of  Bayle's  mode  of  reasoning.  Is  it  con- 
ceivable that  five  centuries  hence  there  will  not  be  a 
single  historian  extant  of  the  sixteenth  or  seventeenth 
century  who  mentions  the  abdication  of  Charles  V., 
or  the  assassinations  of  Henry  III.  and  IV.  of  France  ; 
but  that  the  earliest  mention  of  these  great  events 
will  be  in  some  "miserable  annaliste"  of  the  nineteenth 
century  .■'  If  it  should  be  so,  the  twenty-fourth  century 
Avill  be  very  credulous  if  it  believes  in  these  events. 
To  show  how  impossible  it  would  be  for  the  historians 
of  the  ninth  century  to  have  suppressed  a  fact  so 
tremendous  as  a  female  pope,  who  was  detected  as 
Pope  Joan  is  supposed  to  have  been  detected,  Bayle 
supposed  a  Vv'riter  of  the  eleventh  century  to  narrate 
as  follows  : — Charles  the  Great  was  very  desirous  that 


APPENDIX  B.  433 

his  successor  should  be  his  son  ;  it  was  tliercfore  a 
great  grief  to  him  that  his  wife  was  barren.  When  at 
length  there  were  hopes  of  a  child,  he  was  beside 
himself  with  joy  ;  but  when  the  child  proved  to  be  a 
girl,  he  was  almost  as  grieved  as  before.  He  deter- 
mined, therefore,  to  pass  the  child  off  as  a  boy,  and 
gave  it  the  name  of  Pepin.  Six  years  later  his  wife 
bore  him  a  son ;  but  the  parents  still  felt  bound  to 
conceal  the  sex  of  the  first  child,  who  on  Charles' 
death  was  crowned  as  his  successor.  She  reigned  for 
three  years  without  detection.  The  dciiGuemaU  took 
place  as  she  was  addressing  the  parliament.  The 
woman-king  died  in  childbirth  in  the  midst  of  the 
august  assembly  ;  and  the  nobles,  in  horror,  passed  a 
law  which  would  render  such  an  imposture  impossible 
in  future.  Imagine  half  a  dozen  different  accounts 
of  the  way  in  which  Queen  Pepin  died,  and  you  have 
a  narrative  as  like  that  about  Pope  Joan  "  comme 
"  deux  gouttes  d'eau."  What  amount  of  credence 
should  we  give  to  this  eleventh  century  writer  .-* 

Some  writers  appear  to  have  believed  that  the  child 
which  the  Papess  bore  was  Antichrist  !  An  eminent 
Dutch  minister  considers  it  as  immaterial  whether  its 
father  was  a  monk  or  the  devil. 

The  German  and  French  Protestants  of  the  sixteenth 
century  delighted  in  the  story,  embellishing  it  with 

37 


434  APPENDIX  B. 

details  of  their  own,  in  order  to  make  capital  out  of  it 
against  the  Papacy.  Nor  did  their  fancy  exuberate  in 
words  only.  Some  of  their  accounts  are  illustrated 
with  woodcuts,  which  would  seem  to  be  more  curious 
and  graphic  than  decent.  Mr.  Baring-Gould  gives  a 
copy  of  one  in  which  the  Papess  is  strung  up  to  a 
gibbet  over  the  mouth  of  hell ;  rather  against  the 
version  of  the  story,  which  says  she  was  allowed  to 
choose  whether  she  would  have  the  public  exposure, 
or  burn  for  ever  in  hell. 

The  raison  d'etre  cf  the  myth,  as  given  by  Dr. 
Dollinger  in  the  text,  is  probably  sufficient.  Mr. 
Baring-Gould,  however,  has  little  doubt  "  that  Pope 
Joan  is  an  impersonation  of  the  great  whore  of  Re- 
velation, seated  on  the  seven  hills,  and  is  the  po- 
pular expression  of  the  idea  prevalent  from  the 
twelfth  to  the  sixteenth  century,  that  the  mystery  of 
miquity  was  somehow  working  in  the  Papal  Court. 
The  scandal  of  the  anti-popes,  the  utter  worldliness 
and  pride  of  others,  the  spiritual  fornication  with  the 
kings  of  the  earth,  along  with  the  words  of  Revela- 
tion prophesying  the  advent  of  an  adulterous  woman 
who  should  rule  over  the  Imperial  City,  and  her  con- 
nection with  Antichrist,  crystallized  into  this  curious 
myth,  much  as  the  floating  uncertainty  as  to  the 
signification  of  our  Lord's  words,  *  There  be  some 


APPENDIX  B.  435 

"'standing  here  which  shall  not  taste  of  death  till 
*'  '  they  see  the  kingdom  of  God/  condensed  into  the 
*•  myth  of  the  Wandering  Jew." 

He  gives  the  following  "jingling  record"  of  th^ 
Papess,  which  is  worth  re-quoting.  It  is  a  fragment 
of  the  rhythmical  Vitce  Pontificum  of  Guliclmus 
Jacobus  of  Egmonden,  preserved  in  Woljjli  Lcctiommi 
Mcmorahiliiini  centoiarii,  XVI.  : — 

*'  Priusquam  reconditur  Sergius,  vocatur 
Ad  summam,  qui  dicitur  Johannes,  huic  addatur 
Anglicus,  Moguntia  iste  procreatur. 
Oji»  ut  dat  sententia,  Ibeminis  aptatur 
Sexu  :  quod  sequcntia  monstrant,  breviatur 
Haec  vox  ;  nam  prolixius  chronica  proccJui.t. 
Ista,  de  qua  Kr<.vius  dicta  minus  la;dunt. 
Huic  erat  amasius,  ut  scnptores  crcdunt, 
Patria  rclinquitur  Moguntia,  Gricorum 
Studiose  pctitur  schola.      Post  doctorum 
Hxc  doctrix  efiicitur  Romx  Icgens  ;  horum 
Mac  auditu  fungitur  loquens.      Hinc  prostra:o 
Summo  hzc  cligirur  ;  sexu  exaltato 
Quandoquc  negligitur.     Fatur  quod  hxc  nato 
Per  scrvum  confuitur.     Tempore  gigncndi 
Ad  processum  equus  scanditur,  vice  flcndi, 
Papa  cadit,  panditur  improbis  ridendi 
Norma,  puer  nascitur  in  vico  Clemcntis, 
Colossjcum  jungitur.     Corpus  parentis 
In  codem  traditur  sepulturse  gentis, 
Faturque  scriptoribus,  quod  Papa  pra:fato, 
Vico  scnioribus  transiens  amato 
Congruo  ductoribus  scquitur  negate 
Loco,  quo  Ecclesia  partu  denigratur, 
Quamvis  inter  spacia  Pontificum  ponatur 
Propter  sexum." 


436  APPENDIX  D. 

The  literature  on  the  subject  is  abundant.  The 
arguments  of  those  who  maintain  the  truth  of  the 
story  are  collected  and  stated  by  Frederick  Spanheini 
in  his  Exercit.  de  Papa  Fcemiiia  (0pp.,  toni.  ii.,  p.  577)» 
and  L'Enfant  has  given  a  French  translation  and 
better  arrangement  of  them,  with  additions  :  Hisiolrc 
de  la  Papesse  Jeanne,  La  Haye,  1736  ;  two  vols,  i2mo' 

The  arguments  against  the  myth  are  given  in 
Blondel's  ^  famous  treatise,  Fauiilicr  diaireissenienl  dc 

1  Baring-GoTild,  in  his  Curious  Mi/lh^,  etc.,  has  tho  following 
statcmynt  in  respect  to  tliis  work  of  Blondcl : 

"  [Blondel,  the  great  Protestant  writer,  who  ruined  the  case  of 
th?  Decretals,  says  tliat  he  examined  a  MS.  of  Anastasias  in  the 
Pkoyal  Library  at  Paris,  and  found  tlie  story  of  Pope  Joan  inserted 
in  such  a  manner  as  to  convince  him  that  it  was  a  late  interpolation- 
He  says,  '  Having  read  and  re-read  it,  I  found  that  the  culogium  of 
th3  pretended  Papess  is  taken  from  the  words  of  Martinus  Polonus 
penitentiary  to  Innocent  IV.,  and  Archbishop  of  Coscnza,  an  author 
four  hundred  years  later  than  Anastasius  and  much  more  gi  ven  to  all 
th?sc  kinds  of  fables.'  His  reasons  for  so  thinking  are,  that  the  stylo 
is  not  that  of  the  Librarian,  hut  similar  to  that  of  Martin  Polonus; 
also  Hint  the  insertion  interf  res  with  the  te.xt  of  the  chronicle,  and 
bears  evidence  of  clumsy  piecing.  "  In  the  eulogiums  of  Leo  IV. 
and  Benedict  HI.,  as  given  to  US  in  the  manuscript  of  tlu  Biblio- 
tiiJ-que  Koyaie,  swelled  with  the  romance  of  the  Papess,  the  same 
expressions  occur  as  in  the  Mayence  edition  ;  whence  it  follows  tiiat 
(according  to  the  int;mtion  of  Anastasius,  violated  by  the  rashness 
of  those  who  have  mingled  it  with  their  idle  dreams)  it  is  absolutely 
impossible  that  any  one  could  have  been  Pope  between  Leo  IV. 
and  Benedict  III.,  for  he  says:  'After  the  Prelate  Leo  was  with- 
drawn from  this  world,  at  once  (mox)  all  the  clergy,  the  nobles,  and 
p'jople  of  Rome  hastened  to  elect  Benedict;  and  at  once  (illieo) 
they  sought  him,  praying  in  the  titular  church  of  ISt.  Calliitus,  and 


APPENDIX  B.  437 

la  question,  si  une  fevime  a  ^tc  assise  mi  si^ge  papal  de 
Rome,  Amsterdam,  1642 -g  ;  in  Bayle's  Dictionnaiie 
historiqiic  et  critique,  article  Papesse.  See  also  Allatii 
Confutatio  Fabulce  de  johanna  Papissa,  Colon.,  1645  ; 
George  Eccard,  Historia  FranciiC  Oriental,  tom.  ii.,  lib. 
XXX.,  §  119  ;  Michael  Lcquicn,  Oricns  Christianus,  iif., 
P-  m  >  Chr.  Aug.  PIcumann,  a  Lutheran  writer, 
Sylloge  Diss.  Saerar.,  tom.  i.,  pt,  ii.,  p.  352  ;  J.  G. 
Schelhorn,  Avicenitates  Literar.,  \.,  p.  146  ;  Jac.  Bas- 
nagc,  Histoirc  de  I Rglise,  \.,  j\  408  ;  Schroeckh,  Kir- 
chcugeschichte,  xxii.,  p.  75-1 10  ;  J.  E.  C.  SciimiiU, 
Kirchengeschichie,  iv.,  p.  274-279;  A.  Bjwer's  Lives 
of  the  Popes,  \v.,  p.  246-260. 

having  Heated  him  on  tlic  pdntifical  thron'',  and  signod  tho  decree  of 
Jii.s  (flection,  tluy  sent  him  to  tlie  very  invim  it.le  Aiign.sti  Lotliair 
and  Louis,  and  tlr;  first  of  tlusc  died  on  29  Sept'inl'er,  8.").'>,  \\u\, 
seventy-four  days  after  the  death  of  I'opc  Leo.'*  I'p.  17l>-181. 
U.  B.  S.l 


APPENDIX   C. 

The  story  of  Poplel,  king  of  Poland,  which  is  so 
similar  to  that  of  Bishop  Hatto  of  Mayence,  is  thus 
given  by  Mr.  Baring-GoulJ  : — "  Martinus  Galkis, 
who  wrote  in  mo,  says  that  King  Popiel,  having 
been  driven  from  his  kingdom,  was  so  tormented 
by  mice,  that  he  fled  to  an  island  whereon  v/as 
a  v/ooden  tower,  in  which  he  took  refuge ;  but 
ths  host  of  mice  and  rats  swam  over  and  ate  him 
up.  The  story  is  told  more  fully  by  Majolus 
{Dicnmt  Canic,  p.  793).  When  the  Poles  mur- 
mured at  the  bad  government  of  the  king,  and 
sought  redress,  Popiel  summoned  the  chief  mur- 
murers  to  his  palace,  where  he  pretended  that  he 
was  ill,  and  then  poisoned  them.  After  this  the 
corpses  were  flung  by  his  orders  into  the  lake 
Gopolo.  Then  the  king  held  a  banquet  of  rejoicing 
at  having  freed  himself  from  these  troublesome 
complaincrs.  But  during  the  feast,  by  a  strange 
metamorphosis  (mira  quadam  metamorphosi),  an 
enormous  number  of  mice  issued  from  the  bodies  of 
his  poisoned  subjects,  and  rushing  on  the  palace, 
attacked  the  king  and  his  family.  Popiel  took 
refuge  within  a  circle  of  fire,  but  the  mice  broke 

433 


APPENDIX  C.  439 

*'  tlirough  the  flaming  ring ;  then  he  fled  with  his  wife 
"  and  child  to  a  castle  in  the  sea,  but  was  followed  by 
"  the  animals  and  devoured." 

He  also  gives  other  stories,  more  or  less  parallel 
to  that  of  Bishop  Matto ;  for  instance,  the  one  of 
Fieiherr  von  Giittingcn.  This  baron  is  said  to  have 
possessed  three  castles  between  Constance  and 
Arbon,  in  the  canton  of  Thurgau,  namely,  Guttin- 
gen,  Moosburg,  and  Oberburg.  During  a  grievous 
famine  he  collected  the  poor  on  his  lands  together, 
shut  them  up  in  a  barn,  and  burnt  them,  mocking 
their  shrieks  by  exclaiming,  "  Hark  how  the  rats 
"  and  mice  are  squeaking  I"  Not  long  after  a  luigc 
swarm  of  mice  came  down  upon  him.  He  fled  to 
his  castle  of  Guttingen,  which  stood  in  the  lake 
of  Constance;  but  the  mice  swam  after  him  and 
devoured  him.  The  castle  then  sank  into  the  lake, 
\vhere  it  may  still  be  seen  when  the  water  is  clear 
and  the  surface  unruftled  {Zcitschrift  fiir  Dnitschc 
MytJiologii\  iii.,  p.  307).  Again,  there  is  a  mouse- 
tower  at  Holzolster,  in  Austria,  with  a  very  similar 
legend  attached,  except  that  here  the  wicked  noble- 
man locks  the  poor  people  up  in  a  dungeon  and 
starves  them  to  death,  instead  of  making  a  bonfire  of 
them  (Vernaleken,  Alpcusagcn,  p.  32S).  Another 
instance  is  referred  to  by  Dr.  Dollinger  in  the  text. 


440  APPENDIX  C. 

The  Worthsee,  between  Tonning  and  Seefeld,  in 
Bavaria,  is  also  called  the  Mouse  lake.  A  count  of 
Seefeld  once  starved  all  his  famishing  poor  to  death 
in  a  dungeon  during  a  famine,  and  laughed  at  their 
cries,  which  he  called  the  squeaking  of  mice.  An 
island  tower  was  as  little  use  to  him  as  to  Bishop 
Hatto  or  King  Popiel,  though  he  took  the  additional 
precaution  of  having  his  bed  swung  from  the  roof  by- 
chains.  The  mice  got  at  him  from  the  ceiling,  and 
picked  his  bones  {ZcltscJirift  fiir  Dent.  ]\Iyth.  f.>  p. 
452).  The  Mauseschloss  in  the  Hirschberger  lake  is 
another  instance  of  a  very  similar  story.  Legends 
abound  in  which  rats  or  mice  are  made  instruments 
of  divine  vengeance,  but  they  do  not  always  contain 
the  feature  of  the  island  tower,  which  is  essential  for 
our  present  purpose.  Sometimes  the  avenging  vermin 
are  toads  and  frogs  instead  of  rats  and  mice. 

The  tendency  which  a  story  of  interest  has  to 
attract  round  itself  as  evidence  circumstances  which 
have  no  connection  with  it  whatever,  is  so  strikingly 
illustrated  by  the  famous  incident  of  the  so-called 
*'  Thundering  Legion,"  that  I  venture  to  call  attention 
to  it.  For  the  sake  of  clearness  I  give  the  outline  of 
the  story.  The  Emperor  Marcus  Aurclius,  in  his 
celebrated  war  against  the  Quadri,  was  reduced  to 
the  greatest  extremities  by  a  failure  of  water,  just  on 


APPENDIX  C.  441 

the  very  eve  of  a  battle.  A  large  body  of  Christians 
in  one  of  the  legions  fell  on  their  knees,  and  prayed 
to  heaven  for  help.  A  sudden  storm  followed,  which 
by  its  thunder  and  lightning  terrified  the  barbarians, 
and  by  its  heavy  rain  relieved  the  thirst  of  the 
Romans.  The  truth  of  the  narrative  does  not 
concern  us  ;  but  probably  no  one  who  examines  the 
evidence,  as  collected  by  Dr.  Newman  in  his  Essays 
o7i  Miracles  (Essay  II.,  chap,  v.,  section  i),  will  dissent 
from  his  very  moderate  statement  of  the  result.  "  On 
"  the  whole,  then,  we  may  conclude  that  the  facts  of 
"  this  memorable  occurrence  are  as  the  early  Christian 
"  writers  state  them  ;  that  Christian  soldiers  did  ask, 
"  and  did  receive,  in  a  great  distress,  rain  for  their 
"  own  supply,  and  lightning  against  enemies  ; 
"  whether  through  miracle  or  not  we  cannot 
"  say  for  certain,  but  more  probably  not  through 
"  miracle  in  the  philosophical  sense  of  the  word.  All 
"  we  know,  and  all  we  need  know  is,  that  '  He  made 
"  '  darkness  His  secret  place.  His  pavilion  round 
"  '  about  him,  with  dark  water  and  thick  clouds  to 
**  '  cover  Him  ;  the  Lord  thundered  out  of  heaven, 
"  '  and  the  Highest  gave  His  thunder;  hailstones  and 
"  '  coals  of  fire.  He  sent  out  His  arrows,  and 
"  '  scattered  them  ;  He  sent  forth  lightnings,  and 
"  '  destroyed  them.'  "    Just  as  the  story  of  Pope  Joan 


442  APPENDIX  C. 

fastened  on  the  fact  that  pontifical  processions  never 
passed  through  the  narrow  street  between  the  church 
of  St,  Clement  and  the  Cohseum,  and  just  as  the  story 
of  the  Count  of  Gleichen  made  capital  out  of  the  big 
bed  and  the  jewel  which  the  Turkish  princess  was 
supposed  to  have  worn  in  her  turban,  so  this  history 
of  the  "  Thundering  Legion"  has  incorporated  with 
itself  two  utterly  irrelevant  circumstances,  and  that 
so  completely,  that  some  persons  have  supposed  that 
by  exposing  the  irrelevancy  they  have  necessarily 
deniclished  the  story — "  as  if  evidence  were  the  test 
of  truth."  Claudius  Apollinaris,  Bishop  of  Hierapolis, 
was  a  contemporary  of  Marcus  Aurelius.  His  state- 
ment of  this  incident  in  the  war  against  the  Quadri  is 
preserved  to  us  by  Eusebius  {Hist,  v.,  5),  and  he 
alleges  as  evidence  that  the  legion  to  which  these 
Christian  soldiers  belonged  was  thenceforth  called 
the  Thundering  Legion.  TertuUian,  writing  some 
five  and  twenty  years  later  (about  A.D.  200),  states  by 
way  of  evidence  that  the  emperor  in  consequence 
passed  an  edict  in  favour  of  the  Christians  {Apo- 
logctiais,  chap.  v.  ;  cf  Ad  Scapulam,  cap.  iv.).  Now 
there  certainly  was  a  Thundering  Legion  (Lcgio 
Fulminatrix),  viz.,  the  twelfth  ;  but  then  it  was  as  old 
as  the  time  of  Augustus.  It  was  one  of  the  nineteen 
legions  levied  by  him.     And  as  regards  TertuUian's 


APPFNDrX  C.  443 

argument,  there  is  some  evidence  that  Marcus 
AureHus  did  issue  a  rescript  favouring  the  Christians, 
but  in  the  period  of  his  reign  which  preceded  the 
battle.  And  it  is  notorious  that  he  persecuted  the 
Christians  both  before  and  after  that  event.  Here, 
then,  we  have  a  story,  almost  certainly  true  in  itself, 
claiming  as  evidence  circumstances  which,  however 
well  attested,  have  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  it. 

Instances  of  strange  and  unusual  objects  giving 
rise  to  myths  might  be  multiplied  almost  ad  infinitum. 
Thus  the  story  of  Arion  arose  from  the  figure  of  a 
man  on  a  dolphin,  which  was  the  customary  offering 
of  one  saved  from  shipwreck  ;  the  dolphin  being  a 
mere  emblem  of  the  sea.  The  story  of  the  Horatii  and 
Curiatii  seems  to  be  an  attempt  to  explain  five 
barrows.  The  custom  of  representing  martyrs  with 
the  instruments  or  marks  of  their  sufferings,  produced 
the  legeiid  of  St.  Denys  walking  with  his  head  under 
his  arm.  The  allegorical  picture  of  Michael  the 
Archangel  conquering  the  Evil  One  in  the  presence 
of  the  Church,  gave  rise  to  the  myth  of  St.  George 
rescuing  Saba  from  the  dragon,  &c. 


APPENDIX  D. 

Pope  Hadrian's  Letter  to   Henry   H.,   King 
^  OF  England,  a.d.  1154. 

Adriamis  Papa  gratiim  et  acceptum  hahet  quod  Hciu 
ricns  Rex  Anglice  Insidam  Hybeniiavi  ingrediattir 
Mt  popiihnn  ilhtvi  legibiis  subdat,  ita  tamen  tit  annua 
Petro  solvatur pcnsio. 

Adrianus  Episcopus,  servus  servorum  Dei,  caris- 
simo  in  Christo  filio  illustri  Anglorum  Regi,  salu- 
tem  et  Apostolicam  Bencdictionem.  Laudabiliter 
satis  et  fructuose  de  glorioso  nomine  propagando 
in  terris  et  asterna;  fclicitatis  praemio  cumulando  in* 
ccelis,  tua  magnificentia  cogitat,  dum  ad  dilatandos 
Ecclesiae  terminos,  ad  declarandam  indoctis  ct  rudibus 
Populis  Christianae  fidei  veritatem,  et  vitiorum  plan- 
taria  de  Agro  Dominico  extirpanda,  sicut  Catholicus 
Princeps,  intendis,  et  ad  id  convenientius  cxcquendum 
consilium  Apostolicae  sedis  exigis  et  favorem.  In  quo 
facto,  quanto  altiori  Consilio,  et  majori  discretione 
precedes,  tanto  in  eo  feliciorem  progressum  te, 
pncstante  Domino,  confidimus  habiturum,  co  quod  ad 
bonum  exitum  semper  et  finem  soleant  attingere  qure 
de  ardore  fidei  et  religionis  amore  principium  ac- 
ceperunt. 

441 


APPENDIX  D.  44$ 

Sane  Hiberniam  et  omncs  Insulas  quibus  sol 
justitiae  Christus  illuxit,  ct  quae  documcnta  Fidci 
Christiana;  rccepcrunt,  ad  jus  beati  Petri  ct  sacro- 
sanctai  Romanae  Ecclesia:  (quod  tua  ctiam  nobilitas 
recognoscit)  non  est  dubium  pcrtinere,  undc  tanto  in 
eis  libcntius  plantationem  fidei  fidelem  et  germcn  Deo 
gratum  inserimus,  quanto  id  a  nobis  interne  exadis- 
trictius  prospicimus  exigendum. 

Significasti  siquidem  nobis,  fili  in  Christo  carissime, 
te  Hyberniae  Insulam  ad  subdcndum  ilium  populuni 
legibus,  et  vitiorum  plantaria  inde  extirpanda,  velle 
intrare,  ct  dc  singulis  douiibiis  Aiiunam  uniiis  denarii 
bcato  Petri  vclle  solvere  pcusioJian  et  jura  Ecclcsiarum 
illius  terrae  illibata  et  intcgra  conservarc ;  nos  itaquc, 
pium  ct  laudabilc  dcsidcrium  tuum  favore  congruo 
prosequcntes,  ct  pctitioni  tuac  bcnignum  impendcntes 
assensum,  gratum  et  acccptuni  habenius,  ut,  pro 
dilatandis  Ecclcsioi  tcrminis,  pro  vitiorum  rcstrin- 
gcndo  dccursu,  pro  corrigendis  moribus  ct  virtutibus 
inserendis,  pro  Christianae  Religionis  augmcnto,  Insu- 
lam illam  ingrediaris  ;  ct  quiu  ad  honorcm  Dei  et  salu- 
tcm  illius  spcctavcrint  cxequaris;  et  illius  terra;  populus 
honorificc  te  recipiat  ;  et  sicut  Dominum  veneretur 
{jure  nimiruvi  Eeclesiarum  illibato  ct  integro  perma- 
iiente,  et  salva  beato  Petro  et  saerosanctic  Romatm  Eeele- 
sicB  dc  singulis  domibus  annua  uniiis  denarii  pcnsione). 


446  APPENDIX  D. 

Si  ergo,  quod  concepisti  animo,  effectu  duxcris 
prosequente  complendum,  stude  gentcm  illam  bonis 
moribus  informare,  et  agas,  tam  per  te,  quam  per 
illos  quos  ad  hoc  fide,  verbo,  et  vita  idoneos  esse 
perspexeris,  ut  decoretur  ibi  Ecclesia,  plantetur  et 
crescat  Fidei  Christianoe  Religio,  et  quae  ad  honorcm 
Dei  et  salutem  pertinent  animarum  taliter  ordinentur, 
ut  et  a  Deo  sempiternse  mercedis  cumulum  consequi 
merearis,  et  in  terris  gloriosum  nomen  valeas  in  seculis 
obtinere. — Rymer's  Fcedera,  Convcntioncs,  Szc,  I.,  p.  15. 

It  is  interesting  to  compare  with  the  claims  made 
by  the  above  document  the  decision  of  the  recent 
Council  of  the  Vatican  : 

"  Si  quis  itaque  dixcrit,  Romanum  Pontificem 
"  habere  tantummodo  officium  inspectionis  vel  di- 
"  rectionis,  non  autem  plcnmn  ct  siipranavi  potcstatcm 
*^  jurisdictionis  in  tinivcrsam  Ecclcsiavi,  non  solum  in 
"  rebus,  qua;  ad  fidem  et  mores,  sed  etiam  qncu  ad 
"  disciplinani  ct  rcgivicn  EcclcsicB  per  totinn  orbcm 
"  dijfusce  pertinent ;  aut  eum  habere  tantum  potiores 
"  partes,  non  vero  totam  plenitudinem  hujus  supremae 
"  potestatis ;  aut  hanc  ejus  potcstatem  non  esse 
*'  ordinariam  et  immediatam  sivc  in  omnes  ac  singulas 
"  ecclesias,  sive  in  onincs  ct  singulos  pastorcs  ct  fidclcs  ; 
"  anathema  sit." — Constitiitio  Dogniatica  prima  de 
Ecclesia  Christie  cap.  iii. 


APPENDIX  E. 

Decisions  "  ex  Cathedra." 

*'  Quelles  ^talent  alors  les  conditions  de  I'acte  ex 
"  catliedni  ?  Qui  pcut  dire  ce  qu'ellcs  sont  au- 
"  jourd'hui  ?  Connait-on  deux  th^ologicns  bicn 
"  d'accord  sur  ce  point  ?  Nous  parlerons  des  actes 
"  ex  catJicdrd  quand  nous  saurons  ce  que  vcut  dire 
"  le  mot  ex  cathcdnV 

Most  persons  who  have  endeavoured  to  discover 
what  the  exact  meaning  of  decisions  ex  caUiedrd  is, 
will  be  inclined  to  sympathise  very  heartily  with  the 
above  words  of  Pore  ^  Gratry. 

Archbishop  Manning  tells  us^  that  the  Vatican 
Council  has  defined  the  meaning.  What  the  Council 
says  is  this:  "We  teach  and  define  that  it  is  a  dogma 
*'  divinely  revealed  ;  that  the  Roman  Pontiff,  when  he 
"  speaks  ex  cathedrd,  that  is,  luhen  in  discharge  of  the 
"  office  of  Pastor  and  Doctor  of  all  Christians,  by 
"  virtue  of  his  supreme  Apostolic  authority  he  defines  a 
"  doctrine  regarding  faith  or  morals  to  be  held  by  the 
"  Universal  Church,  by  the  divine  assistance  promised 

1  Trom^me  lettre  A  Mgr.  De$champ»,  p.  13. 

2  The  Vatican  Council  and  its  Ve/tnitions,  London,  1870,  p.  57. 

447 


448  APPENDIX  E. 

"  to  him  in  blessed  Peter,  is  possessed  of  that  in- 
"  falHbility,"  1  &c. 

But  some  persons  have  been  able  to  accept  the 
new  dogma,  that  the  Pope  has  the  Church's  infal- 
libility when  he  speaks  ex  cathcdrd,  precisely  be- 
cause neither  the  nature  of  the  Church's  infallibility 
nor  the  meaning  of  ex  cnthcdrA  have  ever  been 
defined.  It  would  seem,  then,  that  the  definition 
of  the  Vatican  Council  is  itself  in  need  of  definition. 
We  must  fall  back,  therefore,  on  the  explanations 
of  the  phrase  which  have  been  attempted  elsewhere. 

Those  not  already  committed  to  a  position,  with 
which  the  meaning  of  ex  catJiedrd  must  at  all  ha- 
zards be  made  consistent,  will  probably  agree  with 
"Janus,"  2  that  beyond  excluding  ofi'-hand  remarks  on 
dogmatic  and  ethical  questions  made  by  a  pope 
in  the  course  of  conversation,  the  di-itinction  ex 
catJicdnt   has   no   meaning.     "When  a   pope  speaks 

1  "  Doccmus  et  divinitus  rcvclatum  dogma  esse  definimus :  Roma- 
"  nnm  Pontificem,  cum  ex  cathedii  loquitur,  id  est,  cum  omnium 
''  Chrisiianorum  I'attorisel  Doctoris  mnnere  fungens,  pro  supremi  tua 
"  Aposiolica  auctoritate  doclrinam  de  fide  vel  moribus  ab  universa 
"  Eccleiia  tenendem  definit,  per  assistenliam  divinum,  ipsi  in  bcato 
•'  Pctro  proniissam,  ca  infallibiiitatc  pollere,  quadiviuus  Kodcmplor 
"  EcclcKiam  suam  in  definicnda  doctrina  de  fiile  vcl  monbiis  in- 
"  stiuctam  esse  voluit,"  &c  — ConsUluiio  Dogmalica  I'rima  de  EccU- 
•'  sid  Ch  isli,  rap.  iv.,  sub.  lin, 

2  Der  Paptt  und  das  Cuncit.,  p,  427.    Euylish  Uauslalion,  p.  lUl. 


APPENDIX  E.  449 

"  publicly  on  a  point  of  doctrine,  either  of  his  own 
"  accord,  or  in  answer  to  questions  addressed  to  him, 
"  he  has  spoken  ex  catJicdrd,  for  he  was  questioned  as 
"  pope,  and  successor  of  other  popes,  and  the  mere 
"  fact  that  he  has  made  his  declaration  publicly  and 

"  in  writing  makes  it  an  ex  cathcdrA  judgment 

"  The  moment  any  accidental  or  arbitrary  condition 
"  is  fixed  on  which  the  ex  catJicdrd  nature  of  a  papal 
"  decision  is  to  depend,  we  enter  the  sphere  of  the 

"  private  crotchets  of  theologians Just  as  if  one 

"  cl'iDSC  to  say  aficrwards  of  a  physician  who  h.ad 
"  been  consulted,  and  had  ^iven  liis  opinion  on  a 
"  d.'iease,  that  lie  had  formed  his  dlagno.^is  a:id 
"  prescribed  his  remedies  as  a  private  person,  and  rot 

"  as    a    physici:in Thus    Orsi    maintains    that 

"  Ilonorius  composed  the  dogmalic  IcLter  he  issued  in 
"  reply  to  the  Eastern  Patriarchs,  and  which  was 
"  afterwards  condemned  as  heretical  by  the  sixth 
"  Qicumcnical  Council,  only  as  '  a  private  teacher  ; ' 
"  but  the  expression  doctor  privafns,  when  used  of  a 
*'  pope,  is  like  talking  of  wooden  iron." 

Some  have  maintained  that  before  a  pope  speaks 
ex  catliednl  he  must  have  thoroughly  discussed  the 
question  to  be  decided,  conferring  with  bishops  and 
theologians.  This  appears  to  be  the  present  view  of 
Bishop  Ilcfclc,  judging  from  his  recent  most  disap- 


450  APPENDIX  E. 

pointing  letter  to  the  clergy  of  his  ^  cliocese.  But  the 
learned  author  of  the  Conciliengeschichte  does  not  tell 
us  whether  the  consulting  a  synod  is  an  indispensable 
condition  of  a  definition  ex  catJiedrd,  or  only  a  piece  of 
ecclesiastical  etiquette.  If  the  latter,  the  statement  is 
nugatory  ;  if  the  former,  we  have  the  startling  paradox 
that  the  infallibility  of  an  infallible  Head  is  dependent 
on  consultation  with  fallible  subordinates. 

Bellarmine  and  his  fellow  Jesuit,  Endjemon 
Johannes,  make  it  a  sine  qua  iion  that  the  Pope 
should  address  what  he  defines  ex  cathedra  to  the 
whole  Church.  Thus  a  decree  or  definition  addressed 
to  the  Church  in  France  or  in  Germany  would  not 
necessarily  be  infallible.     But  surely  what  is  truth  for 

1  The  words  of  our  Constitution  (jConstitutio  Dogmatica  Prima  He 
Ecclesi^  ChriHi,  cap.  iv.)  :  "  Romani  autcm  Pontifices,  prout  tcinpo- 
"  rum  ct  rerum  conditio  .suadebat,  nunc  convocatis  cecumr-nins 
"  coneillis  aut  explorata  EcclcsiiB  per  orbem  dispcr.sa;  sentenlia, 
"  nunc  per  synodos  particulares,  nunc  aliis,  qure  divina  suppt'dilaliafc 
"  providcntia,  adliibitis  auxiliis,  Ac,"  contain  not  only  an  histoiiciil 
notice  of  wliat  was  done  formerly,  but  also  imply  the  rule,  in 
accordance  with  which  papal  decisions  ex  cathe:trii  will  always 
be  made.  —  R'tndschreilen  an  dan  hochw'jrdigen  Klerus.  llotten- 
burf(,  April  10th,  18T1. 

But  will  it  suffice  if  the  Pope  merely  consults  a  synod,  and  then 
aecrees  what  ho  pleases,  whether  the  synod  approve  or  no?  Oi* 
must  at  least  some  of  the  synod  agree  with  him  ?  Or  will  it  be  suffi- 
cient if  he  only  consults  those  wlio  are  known  to  agree  with  him? 
"  'I'his  question  lias  become  a  crucial  one  since  171-,  when  Clement 
"XI.  issued  his  famous  Bull  Uniffenitus,  which  he  had  drawn  up 
"  with  the  assistance  of  two  cardinals  only." — (Janus). 


APPENDIX  E.  451 

one  IS  truth  for  all.  How  can  a  proposition  be  an 
article  of  faith  for  France  or  Germany,  if  it  is  not  an 
article  of  faith  for  the  whole  Church  ? 

Others  again,  would  make  it  of  the  essence  of  an 
ex  cathedrd  decision  that  the  document  should  have 
been  affixed  for  a  certain  time  to  the  door  of  St 
Peter's,  and  in  the  Campofiore, 

[Bishop  von  Hefcle,  in  his  essay  on  Honorius, 
against  De  Margeric's  pamphlet,  Le  Pape  Honorius  et 
Ic  Bnh}iaire  Roviain  (Paris  1870),  takes  the  ground 
that  Honorius  spoke  ex  cathedrd  on  the  question  in 
hand.     He  says : 

"  Who  does  not  know  that  it  is  extremely  difficult 
to  determine  when  the  Pope  speaks  ex  cathedrd  ?  Dc 
Margerie  propounds  two  criteria  by  which  this  may 
be  known  : 

"  a.  When  the  Pope  proclaims  in  positive  terms  an 
opinion  as  an  article  of  faith.  Honorius,  he  argues, 
did  not  do  this.  But  is  not  the  following  dictum 
positive : 

"  We  confess  one  will  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 
(Unam  voluntatem  fatemur  domini  Jesu  Christi. 
Mansi,  T.  xi.,  p.  539). 

"  Further,  Honorius  says:  *  We  have  not  learned 
from  the  Holy  Scriptures  that  Jesus  Christ. . .  has  one 
or  two  energies  ;  but  that  He  acts  in  manifold  modes/ 


4S2  APPENDIX  E. 

(innltiformiter  cognovimus  operatum,  Mansi.  p.  542). 
And  is  not  Honorius  prescribing  this  as  a  matter  of 
faith  ?  Toward  the  close  of  his  epistle,  he  says  :  '  This, 
my  brethren,  you  will  with  us  proclaim . . .  and  we 
exhort  you  (hortantes  vos)  that  you  avoid  the  new 
way  of  talking  about  one  or  two  energies,  etc'  {Mansi, 

xi.,  p.  543)- 

"  In  the  second  epistle  he  is  still  more  clear  :  '  As 
to  the  ecclesiastical  dogma,  and  what  we  are  bound 
to  hold  and  to  teach  (quantum  ad  dogma  eccksiasti- 
cum  pertinet  quae  tcnere  vel  praedicare  dcbemwi),  we 
are  not  bound  to  define  that  there  is  in  the  I.Iediator 
either  one  energy  or  two.' 

"  Thus  Honorius  in  fact  proclaimed  his  thesis /^j/- 
tively,  and  prescribed  \t. 

"  b.  But,  says  Margerie  (p.  43),  he  did  not  enj  ;»n  it 
upon  the  whole  zvorld,  and  this  is  the  second  requisite 
of  a  dogma  ex  cathedrd. 

"  I  do  not  know  that  a  formal  address  to  the  whole 
Church  is  absolutely  necessary  to  an  ex  cathedrd  defi- 
nition ;  for  if  that  be  the  case,  the  famous  dogmatic 
epistle  of  Leo  I.  to  Flavian  was  not  given  ex  cathedrd. 
Dut  there  is  no  doubt  about  the  fact  that  Honorius 
would  have  the  whole  Church,  and  not  merely  the 
Church  of  Constantinople,  believe  what  he  pro- 
pounded." (See  the  Presbyterian  Quarterly  and  Prince' 


APPENDIX  E.  453 

ton  Rei>iav,  April,  i  'i'ji,  pp.  299,  3CK).)  Bishop  Hcfele, 
however,  published  the  Vatican  decree  on  Papal  In- 
fallibility in  April,  1871,  and  gave  in  his  adhesion  to 
it,  accompanying  it  with  an  interpretation  on  several 
points,  as  e.g.,  that  this  "  infallibility  extends  only  to 
revealed  truth  about  matters  of  faith  and  morals  ; " 
that  "  the  definitions  alone  are  infallible,  and  not  the 
intioductory  statements  and  arguments;"  and,  in 
fine,  that  the  reason  why  a  papal  definition  is  in- 
fallible "is  not  to  be  found  in  the  person  of  the  Pope, 
but  in  the  divine  aid."  This  last  is  certainly  a  re« 
nia /kable  iiiterpretatioii :  for  if  that  was  the  real  sense 
of  the  decree,  none  of  the  minority  of  the  Council 
could  have  opposed.  See  a  sharp  critici>m  on  thcLC 
pi  *nts  in  von  Schulte's  Stellung  dcr  Concilicn,  /'.//.sA- 
und  Bischofe,  Prag.  1871,  s.  336-8.  II.  B.  S.] 

Another  necessary  condition,  according  to  some, 
is  that  the  Pope  should  anathematize  those  who 
dispute  the  decision. 

Lastly,  the  Bishop  of  St.   Pdlten  maintains '  that 

1  Dief  Itche  und  die  vahe  Un/ehlbarkeit  dtr  Popitr,  von  Dr. 
Josi'ph  Fesslkb,  Bisthof  von  St.  1'.  lt<n,  Wiin,  1871.  The  |tnin- 
jlilct  contains  some  Htrangf  inconsistcni  ifs,  ax  pn.fistior  W  rrlitolil 
has  already  jwint.  d  out,  v.  r.  .  On  p.  .T4  Dishop  K<s8kr  maintiiina 
that  the  well  known  brief  of  I'ius  IX  ,  .Huili/>licei  ifiter  ^Juiu-  ht,  IS.'il), 
in  which  certain  do<.triiu'8  arc  con(hnin  il  as  heretical,  is  not  a 
decision  er  cUhedrd  ;  and  the  bishop  ridicules  professor  SvhulU:  for 
Bupposiug  that  a  dcfinitiun  uf  on  article  of  faith  coald  bo  made  in 


454  APPENDIX  E. 

the  pope  must  expressly  state  that  he  is  defining,  in 
virtue  of  his  office,  as  supreme  teacher  in  the  Church. 
Hence  he  would  contend  that  it  is  still  doubtful 
whether  the  present  Pope's  Syllabus  is  ex  cathcdrd, 
and  therefore  infallible.  Would  Rojne  allow  that  it  is 
doubtful } 

In  considering  these  various,  and  in  some  cases 
extraordinary  conditions,  we  can  scarcely  avoid  the 
conclusion  that  they  are  for  the  most  part  artificial 
restrictions,  invented  for  the  purpose  of  excluding 
certain  awkward  utterances  of  popes  from  being  ex 
cathedrd.  Such  efforts  reach  a  climax  when  the  view 
is  deliberately  put  forth,  that,  ^  as  no  pope  ever  has 
spoken  ex  cathedrd  from  the  beginning  of  time  till 
now,  so  it  is  probable  that  henceforth  till  the  end  of 
time  none  ever  will  so  speak.  And  nothing  short  of 
this  desperate  theory  can  save  the  Bull  of  Paul  IV. — 
"  Cum  ex  Apostolatus  officio"  March  15th,  1809  (one 

condemning  a  book.  On  p.  41,  however,  he  tells  us  that  in  theology 
it  is  a  sure  sign  (sicheres  Kcnnzeichen)  of  a  dogmatic  decision, 
when  any  doctrine  is  declared  by  the  Pope  to  be  heretical.  The  pam- 
phlet in  style  is  perhaps  scarcely  what  one  would  have  expected 
from  a  prelate. 

1  What  13  the  Meaning  of  the  late  Definition  of  the  InfiWhility  of 
the  Tope?  An  Enquiry.  I'y  W.  Maskell,  p.  10.  Noticed  by  the 
Dean  of  Westminster  in  his  recent  pamphlet  on  The  Alhanastan 
Creed.  Dean  Stanley  justly  remarks,  "  Whether  such  interpretations 
"  are  respectful  to  the  documents  which  they  profess  to  honour  may 
«  well  be  doubted."  (p.  95.) 


APPENDIX  E.  455 

of  the  most  terrible  ever  issued  by  a  pope) — from 
being  ex  cathcdrd.  Every  ^  condition,  even  down  to 
the  affixing  it  on  the  doors  of  St.  Peter's,  is  fulfilled. 
The  Bishop  of  St.  Polten  attempts  to  exclude  it, 
because  it  is  not  a  decision  in  matters  of  faith — 
"  keine  GlaHbcnsQ\\\.'~,z\\c\i\\xw^  \ "  but  it  is  most 
undeniably  a  decision  in  matters  of  morals,  and  these 
are  claimed  as  within  the  sphere  of  papal  infallibility 
no  less  than  matters  of  faith. 

1  It  is  perhaps  worth  while  to  quote  the  piis.sages  which  prove 
tliis : — "  Cum  ei  Apostolatus  officio  nobis,  iiKritis  licet  iniparibun, 
•*  divinitus  credito,  ciira  Doiniiiici  ni'tR's  nobis  iiuniincat  generality 
"  ct  cxindc  toniannir  pro  fideli  illiiis  eustoUia,  tt  t<alubri  dtrectione, 
"  more  Vij^ilis  /  aslorit  ansidue  vi>;ilnre,"  &c. 

"  I'abila  huper  his  cum  venirabilibus  fratribus  nostris  S.  R.  E. 
"  cardinalibus  del  beratione  malura,  do  corum  consilio,  et  unanimi 
•*  assenati,"  &c. 

"  Ilac  nostra  in  perpeluttm  valilura  constitiitione,. .  ..<f«  j4;>o«/o- 
"  I  cie  jioteftatis  pUnitudine  saneimus,  Btatuimus,  dcccrniinus  et 
"  definimur,''  Ac. 

"  ll  aut(  m  pnesentes  litenc  ad  oTnnium  quorum  interest  notitinm 
"  diducantur,  volunius  eas....in  Iia»ilicK  Principit  Apotlolorum  d$ 
"  I'rbe  et  Chancellaritt  Apottolicx  valvtM  atque  m  acie  campi  Fl  rm 
"  per  aliipios  ex  curm^ribus  nostris  publieari  et  ajfigi,"  kr. 

"  Si  quis  autem  hoc  attentare  pnrsnnipserit,  tndignationem  ornni- 
"  pote'  tis  Dei,  ac  Bt  atoriim  Petri  et  Pauli  npoistolorum  ejus  se  noverit 
incuTiUTum  " — "  hoc"  Vuing  tlie  infringing  or  op{x>8ing  of  the  ISull. 
See  an  able  article  in  the  AUgemeine  Zcitung  (Beilage,  April  11, 
1871  \  Die  rdmische  Frag*,  die  jkiptUlich*  SUienlthr*  t^nd  die  euro- 
pjitckt  Jiee/u*ordnung. 


APPENDIX   F. 

The  latest  Defenders  of  Honorius. 

In  order  to  be  convinced  how  fatal  the  case  of 
Honorius  is  to  the  claims  of  papal  infallibility,  one 
has  only  to  read  a  few  of  his  apologists.  The  means 
resorted  to  in  the  vain  attempt  to  overcome  the  in- 
surmountable difficulty,  are  so  cxtraordinaTy  and  so 
various,  that  one  feels  that  the  truth  must  be  on  the 
side  which  is  so  fiercely  and  irrationally  assailed.  The 
controversy  is  one  more  proof  of  the  simplicity  of 
truth  and  the  multiplicity  of  error.  We  arc  only 
concerned  now  with  that  mode  of  argument,  lately 
renewed  in  high  quarters,  which  would  demolish  the 
case  of  Honorius  as  an  instance  of  papal  fallibility,  by 
maintaining  that  the  letters  of  Honorius  are  not 
heterodox.  This  method  has  at  least  the  advantage 
of  being  bold.  Three  general  councils  have  declared 
that  these  letters  arc  heterodox,  in  fact,  damnably 
heretical  ;  and  pope  after  pope  has  confirmed  the 
decision  of  these  councils.  But,  in  spite  of  that,  three 
Roman  archbishops  publicly  assure  their  clergy  that 
the  epistles  of  Honorius  are  perfectly  orthodox.  Pro- 
testant "private  judgment"  can  scarcely  go  farther. 

450 


APPENDIX  F.  457 

A  recent  pastoral  of  the  archbishop  of  Baltimore 
contains  the  following  "  excellent  passage,"  quoted 
with  approbation  by  Archbishop  Manning :  "  The  case 
*' of  Honorius  forms  no  exception;  for  1st,  Honorius 
"  expressly  says  in  his  letters  to  Sergius  that  he 
*'  meant  to  define  nothing,  and  he  was  condemned 
*'  precisely  because  he  temporized  and  would  not 
*'  define ;  2nd,  because  in  his  letters  he  clearly  taught 
"  the  sound  Catholic  doctrine,  only  enjoining  silence  as 
"  to  the  use  of  certain  terms,  then  new  in  the  Church; 
*'  and  3rd,  because  his  letters  were  not  addressed  to  a 
*'  general  council  of  the  whole  Church,  and  were 
*'  rather  private  than  public  and  ofhcial ;  at  least  they 
*'  were  not  published,  even  in  tlie  East,  until  several 
**  years  later." 

The  Archbishop  of  Westminster  goes  even  further 
than  his  American  brother.  "  I  will,  nevertheless,  here 
"  afHrm  that  the  following  points  in  the  case  of  I  lono- 
*'  rius  can  be  abundantly  proved  from  documents  : — 

*'  (i.)  That  Honorius  defined  no  doctrine  whatsorjcr. 
*'  (2.)  That  he  forbade  the  making  of  any  new 
"  definition.  (3.)  That  his  fault  was  precisely  in  tliis 
"  omission  ^  of  Apostolic  authority,  for  which  he  was 

1  Would  the  council  have  Bolcmnly   cnrsed  Honorius  for  ni<ro 
"  omission  of  Apost<ilic  authority  ?"     And  would  Popo  Leo  havo 
spoken  of  such  onii&iion  aa  a  "  profana  proditio,"  an  attempt  to 
subvert  the  faith? 
89 


458  APPENDIX  F. 

"justly  censured  [i.e.  anathematized].  (4.)  That  his 
"  two  epistles  are  entirely  orthodox ;  though,  in  the 
"  use  of  language,  he  wrote,  as  zvas  usual,  before  the 
"  condemnation  of  Monothelitism,  and  not  as  it 
*'  became  necessary  afterwards.  It  is  an  anachronism 
"  and  an  injustice  to  censure  his  language  before  that 
"  condemnation,  as  it  might  be  just  to  censure  it 
"  after  the  condemnation  had  been  made  ; "  ^  an 
anachronism  of  which  three  general  councils  and 
various  popes  have  been  guilty.  One  is  not  ashamed 
of  being  similarly  guilty  in  company  so  respectable. 

It  is  difficult  to  decide  which  statement  is  the  most 
audacious,  that  the  letters  of  Honorius  are  entirely 
orthodox,  or  that  the  language  for  which  he  was 
anathematized  was  usual  at  the  time. 

Similarly  the  Archbishop  of  Malines  maintains  of 
Honorius,  that  "  non-seulement  il  n'a  pas  enseignd  le 
monothelisme,  mais  il  a  formellement  enseignd  le 
contrairer 

Let  us  very  briefly  review  the  facts. 

Of  the  four  Oriental  patriarchs  three  had  declared 
for  the  famous  Nine  Articles,  which  were  an  attempt 
to  make  peace  by  means  of  a  doubtful  expression.  ^ 

1  The  Vatican  Council  and  its  Definitions :  a  Pastoral  Letter  to  the 
Clergy,  London,  1870. 

2  Oi(iv6f)iKn  ivE/iyein — words  capable  of  an  orthodox,  but  also  of  a 
inonophy.site  interpretation.  They  occur  in  the  seventh  and  crucial 
article.    The  fiist  six  are  introductory ;  the  last  two  are  auathemad. 


APPENDIX  F.  459 

The  new  patriarch  of  Jerusalem,  Sophroniscus,  dis- 
regarding the  promise  which  he  had  made  as  a 
private  theologian,  had  called  a  synod  and  solemnly 
condemned  the  Nine  Articles,  Now  came  the  time 
when  Honorius,  hitherto  quite  passive,  could  keep 
silence  no  longer.  He  was  formally  asked  for  his 
decision.  It  would  seem  as  if  he  never  clearly 
understood  the  question.      He  gave  four  ^  different 

1  (1).  "  Undo  et  cnam  voluntatem  rATKVCR  D.  N.  Jiso  Christi, 
"  quia  profecto  a  divinitate  assumpta  est  nostra  nature,  non  culpa 
•<  [in]  ilia  profocto,  quae  ante  peccatum  creata  est,  non  quae  post  praj- 
"  varirationtni  vitiata."  (2).  "  Nam  lei  alia  in  membrit^  aat  voluntai 
"  diversa  non  fuit,  vel  eonlraria  Pah"atori,  quia  super  legem  oatuseBt 
"  luimana;  conditionis."  (3;.  "  Utrum  autem  propter  opera  divini- 
"  talis  et  humanitatis  una  an  gt  ininaB  operationes  debeant  dcri 
"  vat.-c  dici  vel  intellij^i,  ad  nos  isla  pertinero  non  debent,  relin- 
"  quentes  ca  gmnimatieis,  qui  solent  parvulis  exquisita  derivando 
"  noniina  venditare.  Nos  enim  non  unaui  opcrati<inem  vel  duas 
"  doniiniini  Jcsum  Christum  tyusque  sanctum  Spiritum,  sacris  literig 
"  percepimua,  sed  raultifomut<T  copnovimus  operatum."  Ilonorii 
ri'.,  Ep.  ui.,  Ad  Sergium  Conslanlinopolttanum  Episcopum.  Labbe, 
Conctl ,  VI.,  'j29,  932.  (4).  "  Aufircntes  ergo,  sicut  dixinnis,  scanda- 
"  lum  novt  ll.T  adinventionis,  non  nos  oportet  unam  lel  duat  op^ra- 
"  tionea  definifntea  pr/e  iicire,  8cd  pro  una,  quam  quifiam  dicunt, 
*<  operetionc,  oportet  nos  unum  operatoi«m  Christum  doniinum  in 
"  iitrisque  uaturis  veridice  confiteri ;  et  pro  duabus  operationibup, 
«  ablto  gfmin»  operationis  vocabulo,  ipsas  potiusduas  naturas,  id  ist 
«'  divinitatis  et  carnis  assumpta)  in  una  pen>ona  unigeniti  Del 
"  Patris,  inconfuse,  indivise,  atquo  inconvcrtibiliter  nobiscum  pncdi- 
♦'  care  pn^tria  operantem."  "  Scribcntes  etiam  communibus  fratribua 
•' Cyio  et  Sophrouio  anlistitibua,  ne  novce  vocif,  id  eti,  uniuM  tel 
«' yf mi/ur  opcralionii  vocabulo  imii'ere  vel  immorari  videanlur  :  sed 
«  abrnsa  kujiismodi  novit  vocii  appellalione,  unum  Christum  dominum 
*<  uobiseum  in  ulrisquu  uaturis  diviua  vcl  Lumona  piuidiccut  uperaa- 


46o  APPENDIX  F. 

answers,  (i.)  We  must  confess  that  Christ  had  only 
one  will.  (Which  was  heretical.)  (2.)  We  must 
not  say  that  Christ  had  two  conflicting  wills,  of 
which  the  divine  will  compelled  the  human  will  to  act 
in  harmony  with  it.  (Which  no  one  had  ever  dreamed 
of  saying.)  (3.)  It  would  be  better  not  to  talk  cither  of 
one  will  or  of  two  wills,  but  to  leave  such  a  mere 
question  of  language  to  grammarians.  (Which  was 
no  answer  at  all.)  (4.)  We  vmst  not  talk  either  of 
one  will  or  of  two  wills.  The  question  cannot 
lawfully  be  discussed.  (Which  was  a  return  to  the 
absurd  and  disastrous  policy  of  Zcno's  Hciioticon  ; 
attempting  to  settle  a  vexed  question  by  forbidding 
its  discussion.) 

In  the  Ecthesis  the  Emperor  gave  this  fourth  dictum 
of  Honorius  the  authority  of  an  imperial  decree.  The 
Ectlicsis  was  received  with  great  favour  in  the  l*>ast ; 
and  Honorius  would  no  doubt  have  accepted  it.  lie 
died,  however,  before  it  reached  Rome,  October,  A.D. 

[The  literature  about  the  case  of  Honorius  has  had 
an  addition  of  some  forty  or  fifty  works  and  pamphlets 

"  tem."  Ilonorii  PP.  Ep.  iv.,  ad  onndoin.  LaLbc,  Concil.,  vi.,  9G9. 
A  froKh  discussion  of  the  case  of  Iloiioriiia  lias  just  ai)})fai-i.:(l  ia 
Ciimany — Die  Irrlehre  des  J/onoriu-i  tind  das  valicajiische  J)ecret. 
Hy  A.  Kucligabcr,  Sliitt(,'art,  1871.  Tlio  book  lias  Lc  n  jilaitd  oa 
tlic  ludcx,  and  tlic  aiUlioi'  iius  submiUcd  to  tliu  conduiuiiaLiuu, 


APPENDIX  F,  461 

within  the  last  few  years.  Sec  the  article  by  Bishop 
von  Ilcfelc,  already  referred  to,  translated  in  the 
Presbyterian  Quarterly,  April,  1872  ;  also  Hefelc's 
ConcilieugescJiicJite,  vol.  iii.,  pp.  129,  145,  264,  285. 
Mgr.  Maret,  Du  Coiicile  General  ct  dc  la  Paix 
Religiense,  2  Tome,  Paris,  1869.  The  Case  of  Pope 
Ilonorius,  by  P.  Le  Page  Rcnouf,  London,  1869,  is  a 
reply  to  articles  of  Dr.  Ward  in  the  Dublin  Re^icio, 
1868,-9 — and  to  a  work  by  Father  Bottala.  The 
work  entitled  Monunicnta  qncvdain  Causani  Ilonorii 
Spectantia,  Rome,  1870,  is  from  the  press  of  the 
Civilta  Cattoliea.  Ilcfele  says  of  it,  that  "  the  notes 
appended  are  almost  worthless,  and  wholly  insufficient 
to  justify  Ilonorius."  Another  more  recent  work  by 
Professor  Joseph  Pennachi,  of  the  Roman  Univci>ity, 
Liber  de  Ilonorii  I.  Roman  i  Pondjieis  Causa,  is  written 
in  a  worthier  spirit,  but  it  attcmi)ts  to  prove  that  "  the 
cj)istles  of  Ilonorius  arc  absolutely  catholic  and  give 
no  countenance  to  the  Monothelite  heresy."  In  an 
Appendix  to  the  German  edition  of  his  essay  on 
Ilonorius,  Bishop  Ilefcle  effectually  dispro\es  Pro- 
fessor Pennachi's  position.  II.  13.  S.j 


APPENDIX  G. 

[Malachi'as  was  Archbishop  of  Armagh,  and  a  special 
friend  of  St.  Bernard,  who  wrote  a  work  De  Vita  ct 
Rtbiis  G  est  is  S.  MalachicB ;  see  Fabricius,  Bibl.  Med. 
et  Inf.  Latin.,  vol.  v,  under  the  word  "  Malachias."  Of 
his  prophecies  about  the  popes  a  full  and  interesting 
account  is  given  by  H.  Weingarten  of  Berlin,  in  the 
Stiidicn  iind  Kritiken,  1857,  S.,  555-573-  He  was  a 
man  of  singular  virtue  and  austerity.  Bernard  spoke 
of  his  prophecies,  which  were  not,  however,  published 
until  1595,  by  Wion,  a  Benedictine,  in  the  works  of 
his  Order,  under  the  title  Lignum  Vita;,  Ornamentnm 
et  Dcciis  EcclcsicB,  Venet.  A  controversy  and  a 
prolific  literature  sprung  up  about  them.  Protestants, 
like  Bcngcl,  extolled  Malachias.  Frorer  published 
the  work  anew  in  his  PropJietce  Veteres  Prendcpigrapin, 
Stuttg.  1840.  In  these  predictions  iii  popes  are 
described  by  1 1 1  concise  sayings,  some  of  which  are 
quite  characteristic,  while  many  of  them  are  simple 
allusions  to  external  facts  and  relations  with  play  upon 
words.  Lucius  II.  is  described  as  inimicus  expidstis — 
his  family  name  was  Caccianemico  (caccia,  chase, 
neniico,  foe)  ;  and  the  Romans,  too,  expelled  and 
stoned   him.     Innocent    III.   is  comes  signatus ;    he 

462 


APPENDIX  G.  463 

came  of  the  counts  of  Conti,  who  had  possessions  in 
Segni.     Pius  II.  (/Eneas  Sylvius)  is  dc  capra  ct  a/buxo^ 

for  he  was  once  secretary  of  the  cardinals  Capranica 
and  Albcrgati,  More  characteristic  arc  the  words 
about  Gregory  XI.  de  tribiilatione  pads, — for  he  lived 
just  before  troubled  times  (162 1),  and  about  Alex- 
ander VIII.,  cnstos  montiiun,  for  lie  bore  six  mountains 
on  l)is  coat  of  arms,  which  led  the  daughter  of 
Gustavus  Adolphus  to  apply  to  him  the  provcib^^ 
"parturiunt  montes,  nascetur  ridiculus  mus."  (W'cin- 
garten,  p.  564.)  The  mottoes  of  some  of  the  c«iming 
popes  (eleven  in  all)  are,  "  Lumen  in  ccelo"  (for  tlie 
successor  of  Pius  IX.) ;  then,  "  religio  dcpopulata," 
"fides  intrepida,"  "pastor  angclicus,"  "pastor  ct 
nauta,"  "  flos  florum,"  etc.  The  last  one  reads  thus  : 
"  Petrus  II.  Romanus,  qui  pascet  oves  in  multis 
tribulationibus,  quibus  transactis  civitas  scptico'is 
diructur  et  judex  tremcndus  indicabit  populum  suum." 
Weingarten  thinks  it  probable  that  the  liencdictinc 
Wion  is  the  real  author,  or  finisher,  of  these  propheciis, 
by  which  he  sought  to  elevate  his  Order,  and  that 
they  were  ascribed  to  Malachias,  partly  on  account  of 
the  similarity  of  his  name  with  that  of  the  last  prophet 
of  the  Old  Testament.  li.  B.  S.j 

END. 


